Trainees

Cohort of 2026–2028

    Cohort of 2025–2027

    Cohort of 2024–2026

    Cohort of 2023–2025

    Cohort of 2022–2024

    Cohort of 2021–2023

    Cohort of 2020–2022


    Recent Ph.D. graduates:

    • Adam Sanford
      • Cohort of 2019–2021
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Development of a Scalable Yeast-Based Functional Selection Platform to Enable the Discovery of Diverse Protein-Based G Protein-Coupled Receptor Modulators” (5/9/2024)
      • Thesis advisor: Mo Khalil
    • Eric Bressler
      • Cohort of 2019–2021
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering Biomaterial-Enhanced Therapeutics to Control Locally Aggressive Malignancies” (3/17/2023)
      • Thesis advisors: Wilson Wong & Mark Grinstaff
    • Jing Zhang
      • Cohort of 2019–2021
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Methods for Studying and Manipulating Microbial Ecosystems” (7/24/2023)
      • Thesis advisor: Daniel Segrè
    • Menna Siddiqui
      • Cohort of 2019–2021
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering Universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor Systems to Expand Cell Therapy Applications” (6/26/2023)
      • Thesis advisor: Wilson Wong
    • Cristian Coriano-Ortiz
      • Cohort of 2020–2022
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering optogenetic tools for protein degradation in Escherichia coli” (2/26/2026)
      • Thesis advisor: Mary Dunlop
    • Michael Zulch
      • Cohort of 2020–2022
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Energy-based quantification of the microbial carrying capacity of Arabidopsis thaliana” (4/11/2025)
      • Thesis advisor: Joe Larkin
    • Noshin Nawar
      • Cohort of 2020–2022
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “A Live-cell Reporter to Track Drosophila Innate Immunity Reveals Heterogeneity in NF-κB Activation and Target Gene Expression” (7/21/2025)
      • Thesis advisor: Zeba Wunderlich
    • Diana Arguijo Mendoza
      • Cohort of 2021–2023
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Droplet microfluidics provides a platform for testing synthetic biology constructs” (12/12/2025)
      • Thesis advisor: Douglas Densmore
    • James Robson
      • Cohort of 2021–2023
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Decoding sequence-structure-function relationships of programmable RNA sensors” (5/20/2026)
      • Thesis advisor: Alex Green
    • Michael Silverstein
      • Cohort of 2021–2023
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Principles of Microbiome Structure and the Implications for Climate Change Mitigation” (12/11/2024)
      • Thesis advisor: Daniel Segrè
    • Joey (Zhuoying) Huang
      • Cohort of 2022–2024
      • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Synthetic Receptor Engineering for Immune Control: Precision Targeting of Autoreactive T Cells and Quantitative Dissection of T Cell Fate” (3/31/2026)
      • Thesis advisor: Wilson Wong