Members
Meet the team! Updated November 2022.
Principal Investigator
Andy Ellington
Andrew Ellington is the Fraser Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. He is perhaps best known for the invention of the word "aptamer," but is now most involved in the development and evolution of artificial life, including nucleic acid operating systems that can function both in vitro and in vivo.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Kasia Dinkeloo
“I completed my Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2018, specializing in Molecular Plant Pathology and Physiology. I arrived at UT as a Postdoc in the Lloyd Lab, working with Dr. Ellington and several other groups to build and test sensing/reporting machinery in plants. I then joined the Ellington Lab and started a position as an assistant professor of practice within the Freshman Research Initiative, re-establishing a bioprospecting lab for undergraduate researchers. My research focuses on ‘omics approaches to plant stress, bioprospecting for useful enzymes, and studying microbial and plant interactions with microplastics. My position allows me to work with Dr. Ellington to provide meaningful and authentic research experiences for a diverse group of undergraduate students from their first days on campus through their senior year (and beyond).”
Satoshi Ishida
“I got my PhD in chemistry at the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Dr. Hiroaki Suga. I joined the Ellington lab early 2020 with the interest in engineering the translation machinery for better incorporation of unnatural amino acids using directed evolution. When I’m not in the lab I enjoy playing badminton and exploring the city of Austin.”
Inyup Paik
“I completed a Ph.D. from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) and—upon arrival at UT Austin— as a protein biochemist (where my research revolved around protein degradation machinery in plants). I joined the Ellington Lab in 2019 as a protein engineer. My research then focuses on a development of protein engineering pipeline around various polymerases. I adapted multiple synthetic biology approaches including structural AI and high-throughput directed protein evolution to develop robust diagnostic enzymes.”
Sanchita Bhadra
“I engineer nucleic acids and proteins into molecular diagnostic devices for detection of infectious and metabolic diseases. My focus is on early and accurate diagnostics not only for presetting therapeutic intervention in clinics but with a broader goal of making diagnostics more affordable and amenable for point-of-care application."
Simon Doelsnitz
"I finished my B.S. in Pharmacology from Stony Brook University in 2016 and joined the Ellington lab in 2017. My research involves applying directed evolution and protein engineering methods for developing biosensors and improving biosynthetic pathways. Besides science, I enjoy biking, playing piano, meditation, cooking, soccer, and dank memes."
Technical Staff
Mason Galliver
“I graduated from UT Dallas in 2020 with a Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology. At the Ellington lab, I balance my research involving protein engineering with my administrative duties as lab manager. Outside of the lab, I enjoy playing video games, playing board games, hiking, and brainstorming cute dates to take my girlfriend on.”
Kevin Huang
“I joined the Ellington lab in 2020 and graduated from UT Austin in 2022 with a degree in biochemistry. I am collaborating with Army researchers on engineering protein polymers and developing new automated workflows.”
Caty Tramont
“I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BSA in neuroscience. My primary research revolves around expressing ion channels in yeast. Outside of lab, I enjoy playing video games, cooking, baking, music, and watching TV shows.”
Brice Hendrickson
“I completed a B.A. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University in 2021 and an M.S. in Physiology from the University of Michigan in 2022. I joined the Ellington lab in September of 2022, and am currently assisting in the development a bio-glue from algal Caulerpa proteins. Outside of the lab, I enjoy staying active, exploring Austin, and going to book shops.”
Graduate Students
Hannah Cole
“I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and worked in the Biotech industry for 4 years before coming to UT Austin for graduate school in 2018. I am jointly advised by Andrew Ellington and Hal Alper and have the privilege of working with two wonderful labs. My research involves engineering enzymes for bioremediation purposes with a focus on plastics degradation. When I’m not in the lab I enjoy hanging out with my dog, drinking craft beer, and game nights.”
Josh Lutgens
“I joined the Ellington lab in January of 2019. I received a B.S.A in Biochemistry here at the University of Texas at Austin and will be continuing within the Cell and Molecular Biology program in Fall of 2020. I am primarily working to express human GPCRs in yeast and then use directed evolution to create orthogonal receptor-ligand pairs. I have also been collaborating with ARL-S, mentored by Jimmy Gollihar, to create a high-throughput automated cloning pipeline. Outside of the lab, I am an amateur shrimp farmer and enjoy playing video games.”
Daniel Acosta
“I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2020 with a bachelors of science in microbiology. I am co-advised Dr. Hal Alper. My research is focused on characterizing and engineering microbial and enzymatic depolymerization of plastics. When I’m not in the lab I enjoy rock climbing, backpacking, and paddle boarding on Ladybird Lake.”
Colleen Mulvihill
“I am a microbiology graduate student co-advised with Edward Marcotte. My research focuses on the development of novel drug screening platforms for GPCRs. Outside of lab, I love running, climbing, backpacking, scuba diving, writing fiction and reading.”
Dalton Towers
"I am a graduate student in the chemical engineering department, co-advised with the Georgiou lab. My research focuses on antibody repertoire analysis in order to understand humoral immune responses to disease and vaccination. Outside of the lab I enjoy running, hiking, playing the trumpet, and caring for too many succulents."
Ankur Annapareddy
“I graduated from UT Austin in 2018 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Economics. Following graduation I worked with Dr. Jimmy Gollihar at the US Army Research Lab - South. I’m co-advised by Dr. Ilya Finkelstein and my research focuses on studying the fitness landscape of viral glycoproteins. Outside of the lab I enjoy doing anything active, cooking/baking, reading, playing video and board games, and exploring new places.”
Danny Diaz
“Prior to joining the Ellington lab in 2018 for my PhD. I received dual BS degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Texas A&M University in 2016 where I researched flavin-dependent enzymes under Dr. Tadhg Begley. My PhD focuses was on developing structure-based deep learning models and applying these models to elucidate new chemistries and engineer proteins for plastic-degradation, cancer therapeutics, and chemical/pharmaceutical manufacturing. Additionally, I collaborate with the Institute for Foundations in Machine Learning (IFML) here at UT to develop new sequence/structure hybrid deep learning models for protein engineering. I am the developer and maintainer of mutcompute.com.”
Charlie Johnson
“I received my B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M and joined the Ellington Lab as a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering program in 2021. My research focuses on using computational and experimental techniques to study and engineer nucleic acid binding proteins for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing and diagnostics. Outside of research I enjoy playing volleyball and playing tabletop roleplaying games with friends.”
Clayton Kosonocky
“I am a Biochemistry PhD student in the Ellington Lab at the University of Texas at Austin who joined in June 2022. My research focuses on using neural networks as a tool for protein engineering and peering into these models with data science methods to gain new biochemical insight. I am also building an automated high-throughput biochemistry pipeline with liquid handler robots to generate massive amounts of data so that we can train more neural networks and refine the ones we have. Prior to this, I worked at Beyond Meat doing research in liquid handler robotics automation, data engineering, analytical chemistry method development, and lipidomics for product development. In 2020 I received a B.S. in Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and did research in microfluidics simulations and organic synthesis. Outside of the lab I enjoy reading books (favorites are The Beginning of Infinity and Godel, Escher, Bach), coding, surfing, skiing, and golfing.”
Phuoc (Jaydin) Ngo
“Hi! I’m a Ph.D graduate student from the Organic Chemistry division, co-advised by Dr. Eric Anslyn and Dr. Andrew Ellington since 2020. My research focuses on non-natural elements at the DNA and protein level. At the protein level, I’m developing a robust in vitro platform for unnatural amino acid incorporation. I’m also interested in how would peptides/protein constituting unnatural amino acids exert different physical and chemical properties. At the DNA level, with the collaboration with Anslyn lab, we’re developing unnatural nucleobase for expanding the genetic alphabet.”
Eric Szmuc
“I joined the Ellington lab as biochemistry graduate in 2021 and am co-advised by Dr. Benjamin (Keith) Keitz in chemical engineering. My work focuses on engineering of electroactive bacterial proteins for emerging technological applications in configurable biological circuitry, electrochemical sensing, and bio-based energy transport and storage. I backpack, mtn bike, paddleboard, boulder, yoga, and all around just like to build stuff.”
Undergraduate Students
Anirudh Sudarshan
“I am currently a Neuroscience and Business student at UT Austin. I joined the Ellington Lab in January 2022 and I’m advised by Dr. Ellington and Dr. Bhadra. My research is focused on using bio-based methods to create reagents for low-cost diagnostics. When I’m not in the lab I enjoy biking, hiking, or eating ice cream.”
Sandy Nguyen
“I am a biology undergraduate student who joined the Ellington lab in January 2022. Currently, I’m engineering polymerases under the guidance of Dr. Paik. Outside the lab, I enjoy playing the clarinet, baking, and spending time outdoors.”
Amanda Hedges
“I joined the Ellington Lab as an undergraduate biochemistry student at UT Austin in Spring 2022. As of this fall I am assisting at the Army Research Lab. I have a special interest in research surrounding antibiotics and antivirals, and pharmaceutical development. Outside of the lab I work as a pharmacy technician and also enjoy hiking, playing video games and spending time with my dog.”
Liana Chen
“I joined the Ellington lab in August 2022, and am pursuing a B.S. in Biochemistry at The University of Texas at Austin. Currently I work in the enzymatic degradation of plastics division of the lab. During my free time, I enjoy ballroom dancing, lock picking, playing piano, and metal detecting.”
Raul Treviño
“I am currently pursuing a B.S. in Microbiology & Infectious Diseases at UT Austin. After joining the Ellington lab in August 2022, I was positioned under the advisement of Caty Tramont to work on expressing ion channels in yeast and assisting with antibody repertoire analysis. Some of my hobbies include reading and watching sci-fi, playing basketball, and exploring various genres of music.”
Alumni
Vidhya Annem
Aly Ladak
Vylan Nguyen
Anastasia Kulikova
Elizabeth Gardner
Jie Li
Hongyuan Lu
Tim Riedel
Stella Wang
Sarah Stofel
James J Guerra
Hannah Do
Jose Cardona
Tushar Suvra Bhowmick
Armin Nourani
Jared Ellefson
Erhu Xiong
Sandeep Panda
Ella Watkins
Yu Sherry Jiang
Yan Du
Yousef Okasheh
Bijoy Desai
Peter Allen
Dilek Cam
Alison Moss
Carolyn Hargrave
Bingling Li
Nick Marshall
Beth Marshall
Shu Jun Zhen
Barrett Morrow
Raghav Shroff
Ted Rodriguez
Pia Sen
Jonny Riggs
Liang Wang
Yolanda G. Garcia Huante
Ross Thyer
Michelle Byrom
Isaac Donnell
Cody McLeland
Chad Wang
Austin Cole
Alexa Vulgamott
Jimmy Gollihar
Adam Meyer
Michael Ledbetter
Petra Bachanova
Shaunak Kar
Kamyab Javanmardi
Jonghyeok Shin