Kate Adamala
Assistant Professor
Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development
kadamala@umn.edu
Synthetic cells, Cell-free protein expression, Engineering genetic pathways
Alptekin Aksan
Professor
Mechanical Engineering
aaksan@umn.edu
Biostabilization; bioencapsulation; biotransport; biomechanics
Brett Barney
Associate Professor
Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
bbarney@umn.edu
Biofuels; biofertilizers; biosynthetic pathways
Jannell Bazurto
Assistant Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
jbazurto@umn.edu
Regulatory mechanisms; bacterial physiology; metabolic stress; methylobacterium
Sebastian Behrens
Associate Professor
Civil, Environmental, & Geo-Engineering
sbehrens@umn.edu
Microbial bioremediation; environmental contaminants; resource recovery
Daniel Bond
Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
dbond@umn.edu
Physiology and functional genomics of metal-reducing bacteria; microbial interactions with electrodes
Steven Bowden
Assistant Professor
Food Science and Nutrition
sbowden@umn.edu
Foodborne pathogens; microbial stress responses; bacterial genetics and virulence; functional genomics; bacteriophages
Kyle Costa
Assistant Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
kcosta@umn.edu
Methanogen physiology; microbial metabolism; anaerobic microbiology
Antony Dean
Professor
Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
deanx024@umn.edu
Molecular evolution; enzymology; isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (IDH)
Mark Distefano
Professor
Chemistry
diste001@umn.edu
Protein prenylation; molecular recognition and catalysis in proteins; protein engineering; bioorganic chemistry
Mikael Elias
Associate Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, & Biophysics
mhelias@umn.edu
Microbial enzymes and systems; bio-remediation; cellular phosphate uptake mechanism
Kathryn Fixen
Assistant Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
kfixen@umn.edu
Redox regulation of metabolism; anoxygenic phototrophs; product formation
Mike Freeman
Assistant Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, & Biophysics
mffreema@umn.edu
Natural product biosynthesis; microbial genetics; targeted metagenomics; radical-mediated chemistry
Jeff Gralnick
Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
gralnick@umn.edu
Microbial physiology; synthetic biology; geomicrobiology; Shewanella; bioenergy; bioremediation; biocatalysis
Ben Hackel
Associate Professor
Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
hackel@umn.edu
Protein engineering; molecular diagnostics; targeted therapy; oncology; infectious disease
Trinity Hamilton
Associate Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
trinityh@umn.edu
Microbial photosynthesis; global biogeochemical cycles; microbial ecosystems, ecology, and evolution
Will Harcombe
Associate Professor
Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
harcombe@umn.edu
Cooperation and conflict; eco-evolutionary feedback; microbial communities; microbial interactions; systems biology
Raymond Hozalski
Professor
Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering
hozal001@umn.edu
Bacterial biofilms; environmental engineering and human health; water distribution systems; biologically-active filters for water treatment; biofouling
Bo Hu
Professor
Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
bhu@umn.edu
Bioprocessing technologies; biofuels; biomass utilization; industrial fermentation; waste management and treatment
Wei-Shou Hu
Professor
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
acre@cems.umn.edu
Cell culture technology; tissue engineering; metabolic engineering; quantitative modeling of biological systems
Satoshi Ishii
Associate Professor
Soil, Water, and Climate
ishi0040@umn.edu
Applied microbiology and biotechnology; nitrogen pollution; genomics; metagenomics; meta transcriptomics; high-throughput sequencing; bioinformatics; bioreactors; mathematical modeling
Romas Kazlauskas
Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, & Biophysics
rjk@umn.edu
Green (sustainable) chemistry; enzyme modeling; enzyme design; enzyme engineering
George Karypis
Professor
Computer Science & Engineering
karypis@umn.edu
Data mining; recommender systems; learning analytics; high-performance computing; chemical informatics; problems in health informatics, information retrieval, bioinformatics, and scientific computing
Alex Khoruts
Professor of Medicine
Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
khoru001@umn.edu
Microbiota-host interactions; microbiota therapeutics; disease pathogenesis; C. difficile; energy metabolism
Linda Kinkel
Professor
Department of Plant Pathology
kinkel@umn.edu
Epidemiology and ecology of plant diseases; ecology of plant-associated micro-organisms; antibiotic-producing bacteria
Dan Knights
Associate Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
dknights@umn.edu
Model host-microbiome interactions; microbial community patterns that predict and diagnose human diseases; computational microbiology
Tim LaPara
Professor
Civil, Environmental & Geo-Engineering
lapar001@umn.edu
Biological wastewater treatment; wastewater and environmental microbiology; microbial ecology and evolution; antibiotic resistance
Gary Muehlbauer
Professor
Agronomy and Plant Genetics
muehl003@umn.edu
Wheat and barley molecular genetics; Fusarium head blight (FHB); genomics resources in breeding programs; germplasm enhancement; genetic characterization
Chad Myers
Professor
Computer Science & Engineering
chadm@umn.edu
Computational methods to categorize, visualize, and model biological data and systems; machine learning; biological networks
Tom Niehaus
Assistant Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
tniehaus@umn.edu
Metabolic biochemistry; biochemical and genetic techniques; recombinant enzyme assay; metabolomics
Paige Novak
Professor
Department of Civil, Environmental, & Geo-Engineering
novak010@umn.edu
Biological transformation of hazardous substances; biodegradation; PCB dechlorinators; dehalorespirers; estrogenic compounds; micropollutants; reactive membrane systems
Christine Salomon
Associate Professor
Center for Drug Design
csalomon@umn.edu
Biological control of plant disease; antibiotic resistance; communication networks among bacterial populations
Cara Santelli
Associate Professor
Earth & Environmental Sciences
santelli@umn.edu
Impact of microbial activity on geological and environmental processes; nutrient biogeochemical cycling; environmental remediation; influence of anthropogenic activity on biogeochemical processes
Casim Sarkar
Associate Professor
Biomedical Engineering
csarkar@umn.edu
Biomolecular engineering; synthetic biology; systems biology; cellular decision making; molecular and cellular therapeutics
Jonathan Schilling
Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
schillin@umn.edu
Microbial decomposers; biotechnological potential; ecological dynamics; carbon cycling; Earth Systems Models
Claudia Schmidt-Dannert
Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, & Biophysics
Director, BioTechnology Institute
schmi232@umn.edu
Biosynthetic machinery; sustainable synthesis; multi-enzyme biocatalysis; genetically programmable, self-organizing protein-based functional materials
Burckhard Seelig
Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
seelig@umn.edu
Darwinian molecular evolution; novel protein generation; synthetic biology; origin and evolution of functional proteins; history of the genetic code
Mike Smanski
Associate Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
smanski@umn.edu
Natural product discovery; genome mining; genetic systems engineering
Christopher Staley
Assistant Professor
Department of Surgery
cmstaley@umn.edu
Microbiota disruptions; microbial ecology; next-generation sequencing; microbiota-based therapies
Brandy Toner
Professor
Soil, Water, and Climate
toner@umn.edu
Biogeochemistry of metals; partitioning of metals among gas, aqueous, solid, and biological phases in the environment; metals in natural systems
Michael Travisano
Professor
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
travisan@umn.edu
Ecological and evolutionary dynamics; evolutionary genetics; microbial ecology and evolution; yeast speciation
Larry Wackett
Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
wacke003@umn.edu
Biodegradation; bioremediation; biosynthesis of natural products; enzymology; applications of enzymes in industrial processes
Ping Wang
Professor
Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
ping@umn.edu
Enzyme engineering and nano biocatalysis; bioprocessing and bioreactors; biosensors; biodegradation; biofuels and bioenergy; biomass-based chemicals and materials; smart coatings and nano functional materials; carbon capture and conversion
Carrie M. Wilmot
Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
wilmo004@umn.edu
Structural enzymology; natural products; metalloenzymes; macromolecular X-ray crystallography; spectroscopic techniques; kinetics; mass spectrometry