Professor, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
halper@che.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 4417

Expertise: Our group focuses on engineering biology to produce organic molecules of interest such as biofuels, commodity and specialty chemicals and protein pharmaceuticals.  Specifically, our lab alters cells and “hijacks” the basic metabolism to convert cellular systems into industrially-relevant biochemical factories.  We utilize a variety of host systems including microbial (eg. Eschericia coli), fungal (eg. the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica), and mammalian cells (eg. Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells and human HEK293).  To accomplish these tasks, traditional pathway engineering approaches are merged with novel synthetic biology tools, protein engineering strategies, systems biology paradigms and applied genetic engineering capabilities.  Our research group focuses on the integration and implementation of these tools and knowledge for the design, production, and elicitation of phenotypes relevant to biotechnological processes and medical interest.  In addition, we are heavily invested in developing novel synthetic biology approaches aimed at increasing our capacity to engineer cells.

Department Chair, Nutritional Sciences, College of Natural Sciences
mbray@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 3958

Expertise: Child and Adolescent Health, Epigenetics, Health & Medicine, Nutritional Sciences

Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
jdudley@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 8415, +1 512 779 7769

Expertise: Animal viruses; retroviruses; breast cancer; oncogenes; transcription regulation; retroviral vectors; leukemia; communication

Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
andy.ellington@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 232 3424, +1 512 471 6445

Expertise: Directed evolution; ribozymes; biotechnology; chemical and biological warfare detection

Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
ifinkelstein@cm.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 1394

Expertise: COVID-19 mutations, cancer, genomic instability and maintenance

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
lgilbert@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 2825, +1 512 471 4705

Expertise: Community ecology; wing pattern genetics; biological variance; imported fire ants/phorid fly interactions; butterfly/plant interactions

Professor, Department of Government, College of Liberal Arts
bgregg@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 232 7274

Expertise: Democracy, Rule of Law, Human Rights, Political Theory, Social Theory, Bioethics, Genetic Manipulation of Humans

Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
herrin@utexas.edu

Expertise: Microalgae and minialgae; biofuels; genetic modification; chlamydomonas.

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
dhillis@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 471 5792

Expertise: Molecular evolution; vertebrates; systematics; evolution of viruses; endangered species; amphibians; reptiles; fishes; mammals; birds; molecular biology; DNA; genetics

Director of Research at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
sjha@austin.utexas.edu

Expertise: Jha studies the interactions between pollinators (predominantly bees), plants and the landscape. Her work offers insights into supporting declining populations of native pollinators.

Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
bob.josephs@utexas.edu
+1 512 471 9788

Expertise: Clinical Neuroendocrinology

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
matz@mail.utexas.edu
+1 512 992 8086

Expertise: climate change, ecology, epigenetics, evolution

Professor of Instruction, Biology Instruction Office, College of Natural Sciences
jen.moon@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 232 4011

Expertise: genetics, regulation of gene expression, basic biology, plant biology, teaching in higher ed

Director, LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, Department of Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
payne@utexas.edu
+1 512 471 9258

Expertise: Infectious diseases; bacterial pathogens; emerging infections; iron metabolism; cholera and E. coli diseases

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
sphelps@utexas.edu
+1 512 475 6304

Expertise: gene regulaton, social cognition, epigenetics and transcription, population genetics, neural network models

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
wilke@austin.utexas.edu
+1 512 232 2459

Expertise: computational evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, population genetics, statistics, artificial intelligence

Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Natural Sciences
kelly.zamudio@austin.utexas.edu