Synthetic Biology & System Bioengineering
Nair lab at Tufts University Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Annual lab gift exchange! (Dec 12)
We had the annual lab gift exchange. Mario, as the newest member, gets first pick.
Aaron’s paper is published! (Dec 11)
In this collaborative paper with Manus and Kcat, we present a novel approach to producing tagatose from glucose. Published in Cell Reports Physical Science!
Prof. Nair recognized as the Tufts Rising Innovator of the Year! (Nov 11)
This is “awarded to Tufts University faculty members (tenure track, research, or clinical) who, having received their terminal degree less than 15 years ago, demonstrate an ambitious entrepreneurial spirit by actively developing new innovations and moving them to the market.”
Story here: https://now.tufts.edu/2025/11/17/sameer-sonkusale-nikhil-nair-honored-2025-inventor-recognition-event
Video here: https://tuftsu.wistia.com/medias/imcxjv8skq
Dr. Mario Leon Lopez joins the lab! (Nov 3)
Mario joins the lab after completing his PhD at the University of California at Riverside under the guidance of Prof. Ian Wheeldon. Welcome, Mario!
The Nair lab presents at AIChE in Boston! (Nov 2-6)
Jessica, Bec, James (Tufts BME advised by Prof. David Kaplan), and Prof. Nair present talks on ongoing lab projects at the annual AIChE conference.
Bec: “Investigating the Active Site Dynamics in Anabaena variabilis Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase by Restricting Mobility of Active Site Loops”
Jessica: “Increasing Transformation Capacity in B. subtilis by Tuning Expression of Natural Competence Transcription Factor ComK”
James: “Microbial Lysates As Low-Cost Serum Replacements in Cellular Agriculture Media Formulation”
Prof. Nair: “Sequence Determinants of Cellular Resource Partitioning in Engineered Microbes” and “Invited Talk: Advancing Biocatalysis on Bacterial Spores through an Extensive Survey of Coat Components”
A fantastic end to a fantastic conference!
Harrison Rohrer joins the group! (Sept 25)
Harrison officially joins the lab and will be pursuing a PhD in Biotechnology Engineering.
New effort supported by DARPA and new team member! (Aug 22)
I’m excited to announce that we will be leading a DARPA Switch effort on sustainable biomanufacturing with Dr. Matt McNulty of TUCCA, Dr. Amin Nikkhah from Friedman and Dr. Todd Chappell from Enrich Bio. Tufts Now! news story here.
In addition, Dr. Zhanyi Yao will be joining the lab as a post-doctoral scholar the help us with the project. Welcome, Zhanyi!
A new manuscript in collaboration with Manus Bio and Kcat Enzymatic! (Aug 1)
You can find a pre-print of our new paper where we describe a new pathway to make D-tagatose (a rare sugar) directly from glucose. The work was led by Aaron Love (Tufts/Manus) and Chris Toomey (Manus) with great support by computational enzyme engineering team at Kcat Enzymatic (India).
The lab attends the annual BBM meeting (Jun 10-11).
Rana, Behnia, Jessica, Avani, and Bec attend BBM at the Harvard Science Center. Bec and Jessica present posters, and Prof. Nair participates in a panel on microbes and climate change.
