Synthetic biology aims to combine electrical engineering design principles with living organisms. Recently, many electronic parts such as digital logic gates, band-pass filters, and pulse generators have been implemented in cells through synthetic genetic circuits. However, one of the current limitations is the lack of availability of a variety of reliable, modular, and well-characterized parts. My project aims to construct, characterize, and optimize a library of genetic circuit components. Once the library is established, the next goal is to use the parts in a computational model or a complex genetic circuit that introduces novel functions into eukaryotic cells.

I have interned at Alexion Pharmaceuticals investigating the role of mass transfer in different scales of bioreactors. I was a member of the 2011 MIT iGEM team and worked on building cells that could self-construct into tissues. Im interested in the use of technology to improve the quality of life for impoverished communities around the world.