Members


Joshua N. Leonard

Principal Investigator

Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Director, Northwestern Predoctoral Biotechnology Training Program

Co-Director, Graduate Cluster in Biotechnology, Systems, and Synthetic Biology

Founding Member, Northwestern Center for Synthetic Biology

Member, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center

Member, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute

Mentor, Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Program (IBiS)

Mentor, Masters in Biotechnology Program

Mentor, Molecular Biophysics Training Program

Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of California Berkeley, 2006

Management of Technology Certificate, Haas School of Business, 2005

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 2000

Photo credit: Jim Prisching


 Doctoral Students


Jonathan Boucher

Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Graduate Program (IBiS)

B.S. in Human Physiology, Boston University, 2014

Lab member since 2019

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and novel therapeutic strategies


William Corcoran

Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Graduate Program (IBiS)

B.S. in Biology, Carleton College, 2014

Lab member since 2019 (co-advised with Gabriel Rocklin)

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and receptor engineering


Taylor Gunnels

Department of Biomedical Engineering

B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 2014

Lab member since 2019 (co-advised with Neha Kamat)

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, cell-based therapeutics, and artificial cell-based therapeutics


Roxi Mitrut

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Minor in Chemistry, University of Delaware, 2017

M.S. in Chemical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2019

Lab member since 2019

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and engineering therapeutic exosomes


Kathleen (Katie) Dreyer

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, 2018

Lab member since 2019 (co-advised with Niall Mangan)

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, computational biology, and computational modeling of novel therapeutics


Gauri Bora

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2019

Lab member since 2020

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and cell therapies


Amparo Cosio

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Minor in Biology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2020

Lab member since 2020

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and engineering cell-based therapeutics


Yannick Schreiber

Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)

B.S. in Neuroscience and Molecular and Cellular Biology, Minor in Biochemistry, University of Arizona, 2019

Lab member since 2021

Research Interests: Synthetic biology and novel therapeutic strategies


Beth DiBiase

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, B.S. in Biochemistry, Northeastern University, 2021

Lab member since 2021 (co-advised with Neha Kamat)

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, engineering therapeutic exosomes, and synthetic vesicles


Michael Anderson

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Miami University, 2022

Lab member since 2022

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, engineered cell therapies


Amy Weiss

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Connecticut 2023

Lab member since 2023

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, engineering cell therapies


Lauren Redus

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Minor in Mathematics, University of Rochester 2023

Lab member since 2023

Research Interests: Synthetic biology, engineering cell therapies


Coco Nut the Palm Tree

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.S. in Beach Fun

Lab member since 2017

Research Interests: Criminal justice


Undergraduate Students


Iva Hammitt-Kess

Biomedical Engineering

Lab member since 2021


Eleftheria Beres

Computer Science and Mathematics

Lab member since 2021


Yazeed Alroogi

Biomedical Engineering

Lab member since 2022 (co-advised with Neha Kamat)


Emilie Jacobus

Biomedical Engineering

Lab member since 2022


Gabriela Cosenza

Chemical Engineering

Lab member since 2023

 


Alumni


Graduate Students and Postdocs

Catherine Leites,    Masters in Biotechnology (2009)   –   LinkedIn

Nicole Hataway,    Masters in Biotechnology (2009)   –   LinkedIn

Sindhuja Sagar,    Masters in Biotechnology (2010)   –   LinkedIn

Shirley Samuel-Abraham,    Postdoctoral Fellow (2011)

Stephen Bi,    BS/MS Biomedical Engineering (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Brendon Dusel,    Masters in Biotechnology (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Jennifer Greenspan,    Masters in Biotechnology (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Patrick Ho,    Masters in Biotechnology (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Anthony Chipre,    Chemistry (2012)

Ragan Pitner,    BS/MS Biomedical Engineering (2013)   –   LinkedIn

Nichole Daringer,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2014)   –   LinkedIn

Yishan Chuang,    Ph.D. Chemical Eningeering (2014)   –   LinkedIn

R. Michael Gower,    Postdoctoral Fellow (2014)   –   LinkedIn

Rachel Dudek,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2015)   –   LinkedIn

Andrew Scarpelli,    Ph.D. IBiS (2015)   –   LinkedIn

Danny Wells,    Ph.D. Applied Math (2015)   –   LinkedIn

Michelle Hung,    Ph.D. IBiS (2016)   –   LinkedIn

Stephen Lenzini,    BS/MS Chemical Engineering (2016)   –   LinkedIn

Kelly Schwarz,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Andrew Younger,    Ph.D. IBiS (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Peter Su,    MS Chemical Engineering (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Everett Allchin,    BS/MS Chemical Engineering (2017-2018)   –   LinkedIn

Benji Leibowitz,    BS/MS Chemical Engineering (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Daniel Fernandez,    Masters in Biotechnology (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Austin Miller,    Masters in Biotechnology (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Amy Hong,    BS/MS Chemical Engineering (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Suchitra Sankaranarayan,    Masters in Biotechnology (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Joseph Draut,    BS/MS Chemical Engineering (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Taylor Dolberg,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2020)   –   LinkedIn

Joseph Muldoon,    Ph.D. IBiS (2020)   –   LinkedIn

Patrick Donahue,    M.D., Ph.D MSTP (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Alexis Prybutok,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Max Ezekiel,    MS Chemical Engineering (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Aaron Morris,    Postdoctoral Fellow (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Kate Dray,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Devin Stranford,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2021), Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023)   –   LinkedIn

Hailey Edelstein,    Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2023)   –   LinkedIn

Simrita Deol,    M.D., Ph.D MSTP (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Affiliated Students

Luke Vistain,    Ph.D. IBiS (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Rotation Students

Adam Pah,    IBiS (2008)   –   LinkedIn

Bethany Baumann,    IBiS (2009)   –   LinkedIn

Andrew Scarpelli,    IBiS (2010)   –   LinkedIn

Roli Mandhana,    IBiS (2011)

Luke Vistain,     IBiS (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Michelle (Marcus) Hung,    IBiS (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Kasia Soczek,    IBiS (2012)

Andrew Younger,    IBiS (2013)   –   LinkedIn

Alexandra De Paz,    IBiS (2013)   –   LinkedIn

Joseph Muldoon,    IBiS (2014)

Soo Ro,    IBiS (2014)   –   LinkedIn

Patrick Donahue,    MSTP (2014)   –   LinkedIn

Nikita Divekar,    IBiS (2015)   –   LinkedIn

Sophia Li,    MSTP (2015)

Michael Vincent,    IBiS (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Tae-Eun Kim,    IBiS (2017)

Clare Harper,    IBiS (2018)

Simrita Deol,   MSTP (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Stephen Lander,   MSTP (2018)   –   LinkedIn

William Corcoran,   IBiS (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Jon Boucher,   IBiS (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Michael Ray,   IBiS (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Daniel Selgrade,   MSTP (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Jacquelyn Trujillo,   MSTP (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Syed Uddin,   IBiS (2020)

Undergraduate Research Associates

Yedida Birnbaum,    Biology (2010)   –   LinkedIn

Jennifer Darby,    Chemical Engineering (2010)   –   LinkedIn

Alexandra Lichtor,    Chemical Engineering (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Jessica Perez,       Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), MIT Bioengineering (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Eric DeFeo,    Chemical Engineering (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Nirajan Rajkarnikar,    Chemical Engineering (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Eric Jiang,    Chemical Engineering and ISP (2011)   –   LinkedIn

Chen Zheng,    Biomedical Engineering (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Samson Berhane,    Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), Yale University (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Darien Hannington,    Chemical Engineering (2012)

Brianne Knickel,    Chemical Engineering (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Bradley Solomon,    ISP, Computer Science, Biology (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Louis Knapp,    Chemical Engineering (2012)   –   LinkedIn

Camila Benaim,    Computer Science (2013)   –   LinkedIn

Adam Spiegel,    Physics Sciences-Oncology Center summer student, Biomedical Physics (2013)

Hector Castillo,    Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), Biomedical Engineering (2014)

Raj Desai,    Chemical Engineering (2014)   –   LinkedIn

Naomi Lisse,    Chemical Engineering (2013-2014)   –   LinkedIn

Vincent Cericola,    Chemical Engineering (2013-2014)   –   LinkedIn

Jason Arnold,    Biomedical  Engineering (2012-2015)   –   LinkedIn

Austin Rottinghuas,    Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), University of Wisconsin Chemical Engineering (2015)   –   LinkedIn

Neil Dalvie,    Chemical Engineering (2014-2016)   –   LinkedIn

Pear Dhiantravan,    Chemical Engineering (2016)   –   LinkedIn

Imran Khan,    Biology (2016)   –   LinkedIn

Praneet Polineni,    Biology (2016)

Shreya Udani,    Biomedical Engineering (2016)   –   LinkedIn

Cameron McDonald,    Chemical Engineering (2017)   –   LinkedIn

Andrea Shepard,    Chemical Engineering (2016-2018)   –   LinkedIn

Lauren Battaglia, BS Chemical Engineering (2018)   –   LinkedIn

Ashwin Kulkarni,   Biology and Journalism (2017-2018)   –   LinkedIn

Nicole Toussaint Nasta,    Chemical Engineering (2017-2018)   –   LinkedIn

Katie Zhu,    Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering (2018)

Siyuan Feng,    Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), Johns Hopkins Materials Science and Engineering (2018)

Chris Coleman,   Computer Science (2018-2019)   –   LinkedIn

Viswajit (Vis) Kandula,   Biomedical Engineering (2018-2019)

Parth Shah,   Biochemistry/Biophysics, Economics, Science in Human Culture (2018-2019)   –   LinkedIn

Brandon Lim,   Biomedical Engineering (2019)   –   LinkedIn

Andrea Collins,   Stanford University Computer Science (2019)

Marya Ornelas,   Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), Pitzer College Biochemistry (2019)

Elizabeth Schauer,   Chemical Engineering (2018-2020)   –   LinkedIn

Anthony Kang,   Biochemistry/Biophysics, Science in Human Culture (2019-2020)   –   LinkedIn

Ugochinyere Ndukwe,   Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), Columbia University – Biology and Neuroscience & Behavior (2021)   –   LinkedIn

Vida Storm Robertson,   Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), Texas A&M University – Commerce Biological Science (2021)

Austin Chen,   Economics (2019-2020)

Kate Chambers,   Biomedical Engineering (2019-2021)

Erin Kotzbauer,   Chemical Engineering (2019-2022)   –   LinkedIn

Isabelle Chen,   Chemical Engineering (2020-2022)   –   LinkedIn

Jake Rusnack,   Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), University of North Carolina at Wilmington – Biology, minor in Chemistry (2022)   –   LinkedIn

Gretchen Ruiz Cruz, Northwestern Synthetic Biology REU (SynBREU), University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez – Industrial Biotechnology (2023) – LinkedIn

Visiting fellows

Ryan Cummings,    MD, New York Medical College (2012)

Melchior du Lac,    University of Warwick (2014)


Lab photo Jan 2016_v1_mod1_crop

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