Members
Meet the team! Updated October 2025.
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
Douglas Chang
Doug received his Ph.D. and B.S. in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of California, Los Angeles, respectively. During his PhD, Doug worked on machine-learning guided discovery of unnatural antimicrobial peptides with high pathogen-selective toxicity, as well as their materials-based point-of-care applications. In the Ellington group, he’s exploring avenues to broaden in scale and scope regarding ML-assisted discovery of therapeutics containing unnatural amino acids. Outside of research Doug enjoys crafting, going to live music shows, and exploring new restaurants in Austin.
Do Wook Kim
Kasia Dinkeloo
Kasia arrived at UT in 2018 as a Postdoc in the Lloyd Lab, working with Dr. Ellington and several other groups to build and test sensing/reporting machinery in plants. Kasia then joined the Ellington Lab and started a position as an assistant professor of practice within the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI), re-establishing a bioprospecting lab for undergraduate researchers. The Bioprospecting2.0 Lab's research focuses on the search for plastic-degrading microbes and enzymes from various environmental sources and conditions. Kasia enjoys working with the members of the Ellington lab 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).
Sanchita Bhadra
Sanchita Bhadra engineers nucleic acids and proteins into molecular diagnostic devices for detection of infectious and metabolic diseases. Their 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.
Technical Staff
Daniel Gutierrez
Daniel Gutierrez joined the Ellington Lab in June 2024. Currently Daniel assists in administrative work as well as pursuing research in machine-learning assisted pipelines for increasing the stability and function of enzymes and biosensors. They are interested in developing new tools to streamline the development of new synthetic proteins for uses in Medicine, Biomanufacturing, and other applications. In 2023 Daniel graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In their free time, you can find Daniel playing video games, reading fantasy novels, or playing ttrpgs.
Kaci Erwin
Graduate Students
Alia Clark-Elsayed
Alia Clark-ElSayed is currently pursuing my PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology, co-advised by Andrew Ellington and Edward Marcotte. Their research focuses on developing biosensors for the detection of small molecules as well as screening GPCRs for novel agonists of therapeutic potential. Alia is interested in leveraging protein engineering and data science to improve human health.
Prior to this, Alia worked as an Applications Development Scientist at Inscripta. In this role, Alia developed new applications and expanded the current uses of their genome editing technology. Their work spanned both external and internal development projects, focusing on genome discovery and protein production. In 2021, Alia graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a B.A. in Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology, and minors in Public Health and French. Outside of lab, Alia enjoys running, skiing, baking bread, and reading.
Arno Gundlach
Arno Gundlach is a second year microbiology PhD student interested in genome expansion and enzyme engineering. Arno completed their BS in biology at Florida State University in the spring of 2023. Outside of the lab Arno enjoys playing sports and philosophy.
Clayton Kosonocky
Clay earned his B.S. in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado in 2020. He then worked as a research associate at Beyond Meat for two years before joining the Ellington lab as a graduate student in Biochemistry in 2022. Clay's research focuses on exploring chemical and protein deep learning models. His primary projects focus on translating chemical structures to labels corresponding to their functionality in an effort to simultaneously infuse chemical representation models with scientific knowledge and aid in novel small molecule discovery. Clay is the co-founder of the BioML Society at UT Austin, through which he has run a world-wide protein design competition and a seminar series on Biology & Machine Learning. Outside of research Clay enjoys climbing, reading, and surfing when near water.
Eric Szmuc
Eric received his B.S. in Biochemistry from East Tennessee State University in 2018 where he did research with integrin inhibition of macrophage adhesion during models of inflammation. He joined the Ellington and Keitz lab’s in 2020 and since transitioned to working with electroactive biomaterials with a focus on bacterially produced conductive nanowires. He is currently in his 5th year of PhD in biochemistry. Outside of lab Eric enjoys mountain biking and backpacking whenever there’s mountain around, woodworking, and everything under the sun that gets his body moving. He is also a combat veteran of the USMC, serving 2 tours to Afghanistan operating in sniper and team leader infantry roles.
Isa Madrigal Harrison
Isa received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 2022 where she worked on characterizing and engineering PLP dependent enzymes to catalyze the formation of non-canonical amino acids. She then worked as a research associate at Ansa Biotechnologies where she helped develop new techniques for amplifying and assembling large and complex pieces of DNA. Isa is now co-advised by Andrew Ellington and Edward Marcotte; she works on a variety of projects related to the biological depolymerization of plastics at the enzyme and organism level. Outside of work, she enjoys running, pottery, and skiing.
Joshua Lutgens
Joshua Lutgens is a 5th year graduate student in the cell and molecular biology program. They are a co-mentored student between the Ellington lab and the Keatinge-Clay lab. Joshua’s work is to leverage synthetic biology tools and techniques to push the boundaries of polyketide synthases. The majority of their research has been exploring combinatorial engineering of type 1 modular polyketide synthases. These huge multi-enzyme complexes are like chemical assembly lines made up of distinct genomic segments that Joshua, leveraging synthetic biology, can rearrange, testing the limits of lego-ization of modules. This culminates in the goal of custom chemical biosynthesis. Joshua’s current interests are in utilizing a biosensor gene circuit to perform some adaptive laboratory evolution on polyketide producing E. Coli to improve titers to more appreciable quantities.
Phuoc (Jaydin) Ngo
Phuoc Ngo (or Jaydin) is currently a 5th year pursuing PhD in Organic Chemistry. He is co-advised by Professor Eric Anslyn and Professor Andrew Ellington. His research involves in the expansion of genetic alphabet (DNA) and the genetic code (unnatural amino acids) by combining approaches from synthetic organic chemistry and synthetic biology. Outside of lab, Jaydin enjoys lifting heavy weights and listening to K-pop.
Steven Zilko
Steven Zilko earned his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2019. He then aided the development of preclinical adenovector vaccines and CAR T cell therapeutics as a research assistant at Precigen Inc. for two years. He is currently a 3rd year Biochemistry PhD student. He joined the Ellington and Keitz labs in 2022, and currently works on bio-based purification of rare earth elements due to their increasing relevance to modern renewable and green energy technologies. Outside of his research, Steven enjoys learning new cooking techniques, weightlifting, and trying to make every sentence he utters funny to someone (mostly himself).
Undergraduate Students
Alex Kretzschmar
Benyamin Zilber
Ben is a junior undergraduate Chemistry and Biology student at the University of Texas at Austin. Ben joined the Ellington and Anslyn Labs in May 2025 after developing covalent small-molecule drugs for cancer treatment in the Hsu lab. Working with Jaydin, Ben is currently working on the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins to introduce novel protein functions. Outside of the lab, he likes to bake fancy desserts and read literary novels.
Danyal Kheyroolla
Emily Fisher
Emily Fisher earned her B.A. in Classical Languages from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020. She joined the Ellington, Keitz, and Kumar labs in May 2024 as a post-baccalaureate research assistant, aiding in the development of a biosensor that purifies rare earth elements and reflects her interests in sustainability and biochemistry. As a former public school teacher, Emily is passionate about connecting scientific research with educational outreach and promoting accessible science communication. Outside of research, Emily enjoys cooking, attending concerts, reading, and exploring new crafts with her husband.
Gracie Deason
Hyuck-Jin Seo
Hyuck-Jin is an undergraduate Human Biology student at the University of Texas at Austin. Hyuck-Jin joined the Ellington Lab in November 2024 after developing a novel diagnostic for Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi in raw milk. Under his advisor Dr. Bhadra, Hyuck-Jin’s current research centers on engineering biological reagents to improve the accuracy and accessibility of infectious disease detection systems. He is a pre-dental student aspiring to advance translational research in periodontics, bridging basic science with clinical practice to improve patient care. Outside of research, he is a passionate fan of South American football and particularly enjoys watching his favorite player Neymar at Santos FC.
Kaila Nayvelt
Meredith Rillera
Meredith Rillera is currently pursuing a B.S. in Medical Laboratory Science at UT Austin. Meredith joined the Ellington Lab in February 2024, where they are advised by Dr. Bhadra. Meredith’s research focuses on using bio-based methods to create reagents for low-cost diagnostics. Outside the lab, they enjoy reading, exploring the city, and playing with animals.
Rohan Varma
Alumni
Dan Acosta
SeungGyun Woo
Hanan Brower
Bethany Perez
Sandy Nguyen
John Halphen Jr.
Ethan Creed
Michelle Mott
Satoshi Ishida
Dalton Towers
Ankur Annapareddy
Julie Bondy
Caty Tramont
Raul Treviño
Liana Chen
Amanda Hedges
Anirudh Sudarshan
Danny Diaz
Colleen Mulvihill
Josh Lutgens
Hannah Cole
Brice Hendrickson
Kevin Huang
Mason Galliver
Simon Doelsnitz
Inyup Paik
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