People

Principal Investigator

Prof. Michelle A. O’Malley
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB

USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT/Broad Institute (2009-2012)
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2009)
B.S. Chemical Engineering; B.S. Biomedical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University (2004)
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Postdoctoral researchers and project scientists

Dr. Susanna Seppala
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Biochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden (2012)
M.Sc. Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, Sweden (2005)
Membrane Protein Biogenesis
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Dr. Elaine Kirschke
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Biophysics, University of California San Francisco (2014)
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Dr. Tejas Navaratna
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering , University of Michigan (2020)
Directed evolution and development of genetic tools for anaerobic gut microbes
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Dr. Hugh M. Purdy
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)
Characterizing genetic mechanisms of diatom cell-wall silicification
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Dr. Bo Zhang
Ph.D. Animal Biology, UC Davis (2022)
Microbial consortia and metabolism of anaerobic microbes
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Graduate students

Elaina Blair
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Brigham Young University (2019)
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Engineering anaerobic microbial communities for bioproduct generation

Lazarina Butkovich
B.S. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (2019)
Natural product discovery in anaerobic gut microbes
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Ramya Ragunathan
B.S. Chemical Engineering,
Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India (2021)
Understanding the formation of biogenic silica in diatoms and characterizing it
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Co-advised by Prof. Brad Chmelka and Prof. Mark Brzezinski

Vikram Mubayi
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2022)
Microbial Degradation of Plastics
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Kellie Heom
B.S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018)
Developing single-cell RNA sequencing techniques for
bacteria
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Co-advised by Prof. Siddarth Dey

Colleen Ahern
B.S. Chemical Engineering University of Massachusetts Lowell (2020)
Microbial degradation of plastics
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Shiyan (Shirley) Jin
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2021)
Characterizing lignin-active enzymes in anaerobic fungi
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Sarah Seagrave
B.S. Microbiology, UC Santa Barbara.
M.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Georgetown University.
Engineering novel genetic engineering tools for directed evolution in non-model microbes
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International Visitor

Dr. Magdalena Calusinska
Senior Researcher, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
Ph.D. Chemistry, Protein Engineering Centre, University of Liege, Belgium (2012)
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Current Undergraduate Students

Jessy Gonzalez
UCSB Microbiology, 2024

Johanna Blackmore
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2024

Hector Cardenas
UCSB Chemistry, 2026

Lab Alumni

Former International Visitors

Dr. Mike Theodorou, Professor Emeritus of Anaerobic Digestion & Fermentation Technology, Harper Adams University, UK

Former Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr. Amy Eisenberg (2023), currently Alga Biosciences
Professor Chris Lawson (2020), currently Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Professor Xuefeng (Nick) Peng (2015-2020), currently Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
Dr. Doriv Knop (2016-2018)
Dr. Monica Reith (2014-2016), currently Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville)
Dr. Jessica Sexton (2014-2016), currently Apeel Sciences
Dr. Charles Haitjema (2012-2016), currently ProteinSimple
Professor Kevin Solomon (2012-2015), currently Assistant Professor, University of Delaware

Former PhD Students

Dr. Katharine Dickson
Dr. Patrick Leggieri, currently Allonnia
Dr. Stephen Lillington, currently Genentech
Igor Podolsky
Dr. Tom Lankiewicz, currently Allonnia
Dr. Jennifer Brown, currently the Joint Genome Institute
Kerri Luttrell, former post-baccalaureate researcher, currently at University of Hawaii
Dr. Michael Vigers, currently postdoctoral student at University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Kendrick D. Nguyen, currently Quantum-Si
Emily Sun, MS
Dr. Candice Swift, currently USPTO
Dr. St. Elmo Wilken
Dr. Justin Yoo, currently Bluebird Bio
Dr. Sean Gilmore, currently Ascus Biosciences
Dr. John Henske, currently Inscripta
Dr. Nicole Schonenbach, currently Pfizer
Dr. Jennifer Guerrero, currently Amgen

Former Undergraduates

Nabil Alansari (2022-2023), Meissner
Thea Zalunardo (2021-2023)
Taylor Gierke (2020-2023), PhD Student Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Yale University
Michael Dong (2021-2022), Sutro Biopharma
Scott Tam (2021-2022), ACCO Engineered Systems
Miguel Castaneda-Renteria (2020-2021), Cargill
Nikola Malinov (2019-2021)
Corey Kerdman-Andrade (2019-2020)
Derek Tang (2019-2020)
Freda Lababidi (2019), UCSB Chemical Engineering
Jenna Hoover (2018-2019), Amgen
Mason Gatz (2019), undergraduate UCSD Chemical Engineering
Alex Smith (2018-2019), undergraduate UCSB Microbiology
Patrick Kolence (2017-2019)
Mohan Saxena (2017-2019), Clorox
Teagan Pado (2018-2019)
Samantha Lee (2015-2018)
Julia Bryne (2016-2018)
Zach Cogan (2015-2017), UCSF
Winston Hsu (2016-2017), OSIsoft
Randall DeGroot (2015-2017), Zymergen
Jessica Hauk (2015-2017), Chemetry
Francis Cunningham (2016-2017), PhD Student Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, UC-Berkeley
R. Andres Parra Sperberg (2014-2016), PhD Student Bioengineering, Stanford University
Herman Ching (2015-2016), PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Daniel Yur (2014-2016), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Wen-Kang Chou, ICB URAP (2014-2015), PhD student ChE, Princeton
Sarah Maxel (2013-2015), PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Natalie Banakis (2012-2015), Patagonia
Charlotte Abrahamson (2013-2015), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, Northwestern
Erich Brodbeck, Amgen Fellow, ICB URAP (2013-2014), Amryis
Chris Euchus (UC-Irvine), INSET (2014)
Marla Nyamdori (2013-2014)
David Chau (2013-2014), Eurofins Advantar Labs
Kane Nania (UCLA) (2013), PhD student UCLA
Jiehao (CJ) Chen (UC-Berkeley), INSET (2013), Genentech
Jessica O'Day (2012-2013), Kite Pharma
Brian Owens (2012-2013), Energy Transfer
Briane Kiliman, McNair Scholar (2012-2013), Intel
Meredith Green (2012-2013), Merck
Elisa Ovadia (2012-2013), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Josie Tressl (2012-2013), Boehrigner Ingelheim