Prof. Nair goes to Enzyme Engineering XXV! (Sept 15-19)
Prof. Nair presents Joe’s work on tagatose synthesis in beautiful Whistler, BC, Canda. (link, tweet, tweet)
Prof. Nair also organizes the poster session along with Prof. Bian Wu (CAS). Thanks to all the volunteer judges and congratulations to the 4 poster prize winners!

Joe’s paper is accepted in Nature Communications! (Sept 13)
Congratulations, Joe! A fantastic achievement! Link to publisher’s website coming when available. But for now, please find it at bioRxiv.
We did have to change the title because the journal does not allow commas, so the original manuscript titled:
“Surpassing Thermodynamic, Kinetic, and Stability Barriers to Isomerization Catalysis for Tagatose Biosynthesis”
is now renamed to:
“Galactose to Tagatose Isomerization at Moderate Temperatures with High Conversion and Productivity”

Lab group photo has been updated! (Sept 10)

September 2019 group photo. (L-R) Front: Debika, Karishma, Prof. Nair, Daniel, Sean, Joe. Back: Aaron, Zac, Todd, Trevor, Bruno, Vikas. (Alexis & Athreya not present)

The Nair lab is awarded an NSF grant to continue studies in yeast for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering applications! (Aug 23)
Thanks to all the people in the group, especially former grad student Venkatesh, for laying the foundation for this work! (tweet, link)

Zac’s manuscript is live now on bioRxiv and submitted for review! (Aug 12)
The work on quantifying and engineering mucus binding was led by Zac and supported by Todd. (bioRxiv, tweet)

A revised version of Joe’s manuscript is now on bioRxiv! (Aug 4)
It took almost 5 months to address the reviewers’ comments, most of which were quite reasonable (!). The paper’s significantly improved with more scientific insights behind the engineering results! (bioRxiv, tweet)

The Nair lab receives a collaborative grant from NSF to understand the role of enzyme promiscuity in cellular metabolism and engineering! (Aug 1)
The work will be led by long-time collaborator Prof. Soha Hassoun and will also involve contributions from machine-learning expert Prof. Liping Liu. (link)

The Nair lab welcomes a new post-doc! (July 1)
Welcome to Dr. Karishma Mohan from IIT-Bombay!

Pictures from Joe’s graduation (May 18)

Taylor defense her senior thesis! (May 2)
Congratulations on doing a fantastic job defending your thesis, Taylor! (tweet)
I suppose this also means, she is graduating and leaving the group. Look luck on your future endeavors!

The lab welcomes a new post-doc! (May 1)
Welcome to Dr. Debika Choudhury from IIT-Bombay. She completed her PhD with a former colleague of Prof. Nair from UIUC, Prof. Supreet Saini.

Sara defends her thesis! (Apr 23)
Congratulations to Sara Amin (co-advised PhD student with Soha Hassoun, Tufts Computer Science) for successfully defending her thesis! (tweet)

Joe and Brett defend on the same day! (Apr 19)
Congratulations to both, Doctor Bober and Master Irwin! (tweet)

Congratulations to Zac Mays for completing the Boston Marathon! (Apr 15)

Prof. Nair featured in the Tufts Engineering Virtual Campus Tour!

The Nair lab attends ACS BIOT in sunny Orlando, FL! (Apr 1-5)