People

December 2023 group photo. (L-R) Jessica, Yiming, Behnia, Aaron, Prof. Nair, Rana, Tyler, Sam, Bec, Selin. missing: Damayanti, Alen, Joe, Hannah.


Principal Investigator Nikhil (Nik) U. Nair (Nikhil.Nair_at_tufts_dot_edu)

Appointment(s)
2020 – present – Associate Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Tufts University, MA
2013 – 2020 – Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Tufts University, MA
2017 – present – Adjunct Associate Professor, GMCB Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University

Education
2013 Post-doc, Microbiology & Immunobiology, HMS, Boston, MA
2010 PhD, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UIUC, IL
2006 MS, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UIUC, IL
2003 BS, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, NY

Honors and Awards
2016 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
2016, 2020 Tufts Faculty with Significant Impact on Undergraduate Students
2009 Hanratty Travel Award, UIUC
2008-2009 Mavis Memorial Fund Scholarship Award, UIUC
2008-2009 Drickamer Endowment Fund, UIUC
2008, 2009 Annual ChBE Graduate Research Symposium Award, UIUC
2008 Best Oral Presentation in the CMB/MBTG Research Symposium, UIUC
2008 Hanratty Travel Award, UIUC


Post-doctoral Scholars and Visting Scientists

Dr. Damayanti Chakravarty – Post-doc (Damayanti.Chakravarty_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Summer ’22 – )
Damayanti completed her Ph.D. in Microbiology in 2022 at USM (Hattiesburg, MS) under the guidance of Prof. Janet Donaldson. At Southern Miss, she investigated the impact of intestinal oxygen availability on survival and regulation of virulence in the deadly foodborne pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes. During her Ph.D., she also taught microbiology labs in the fall and spring semesters. She joins us to work on using imaging and machine learning techniques to identify pathogens on surfaces.


Graduate Students

Aaron M. Love – Biot Ph.D. student (part-time)
(Aaron.Love_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’17 – )
Aaron joined the Nair lab in 2017  and works full-time at ManusBio, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA recreating plant processes in microorganisms to produce natural ingredients through fermentation. He graduated in 2013 from Northwestern University with an MS in Biotechnology, where his research was focused on RNAi-based therapeutics at the company Exicure in Skokie, IL. He also holds a BA in microbiology from Miami University (OH). Aaron is currently investigating the fundamental effects of heterologous gene expression on microbial hosts.

Rana Said – Biot Ph.D. student
(Rana.Said_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’19 – )
Rana has a B.Sc. and a Postbac in Biotechnology from Cairo University (Egypt). Her graduation thesis topic was “The Expression Profiling of Some Key Genes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia using Custom-made Gene Chip”. While in Egypt she also characterized the function of unknown Baculoviral genes. After receiving the Fulbright scholarship, she traveled to the U.S. to do her master’s in biotechnology at American University (Washington, D.C.). Her MS research at the Dr. Bracht Lab included testing the NRG1 protein impact on human adipose-derived stem cell expansion and differentiation. In addition, she participated in writing a review paper with a group of Georgetown Medical students. This review article entitled: “Therapeutic Applications of Adipose-derived Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Disease” was accepted in September 2018. She has another paper entitled “Regional Sequence Expansion or Collapse in Heterozygous Genome Assemblies” that was submitted in September 2019. She was selected to speak on a student panel about Entrepreneurship and Innovation at a Fulbright Conference entitled “From Lab to Market Innovation” at the University of Utah, from May 29 to June 2, 2018. Rana is working on developing new techniques to study and engineer probiotic therapeutics.

Bec Condruti – GMCB Ph.D. student (Rebecca.Condruti_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Summer ’21 – )
Bec graduated from Arizona State University in 2020 with a B.S. in Microbiology. While at ASU, she worked in the lab of Dr. Xuan Wang studying the role of small multidrug resistance pumps in furfural tolerance during lignocellulosic bioconversion into ethanol. During her senior year, she created the science outreach program, Little Big Scientists, and is passionate about making science education exciting and accessible for all children. Bec’s work is focused on enzyme engineering. Outside the lab, you can find her running with her Australian Shepard, Leo, and trying every lobster roll in New England.

Jessica Lee – Biot Ph.D. student
(Jessica.Lee642334_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’21 – )
Jessica graduated from the University of California Davis in 2021 with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. At UCD, she worked within the BioInnovation Group to lead the 2019 iGEM team to characterize optogenetic systems in mammalian cell culture. She then joined the Facciotti lab to continue working on standardizing quantitative measurements in transiently transfected mammalian systems. Jessica is working on Bacillus subtilis competence and spore engineering.

Tyler Schult – Biot Ph.D. student (joint with Lee lab)
(Tyler.Schult_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’23 – )
Tyler started university studying mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. He later transferred to the University of Florida and graduated in 2022 with a B.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science. As an undergrad at UF, Tyler researched UV resistance mechanisms in stratospheric bacteria with Dr. Brent Christner and Dr. Christopher Reisch. After graduation, he stayed at UF to work on AAV capsid structure as a research technician in Dr. Robert McKenna’s lab. Tyler has now joined the Nair and Lee labs as a student in the Biotechnology Engineering PhD program at Tufts. While at Tufts, he hopes to refine his broad interests in microbial communities and microbial genetics and expand his knowledge in synthetic biology.

Behnia Shirazi – Biot Ph.D. student
(Behnia.Rezazadeh_Shirazi_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’23 – )
Behnia immigrated to the United States when he was 17. He earned his GED from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Following that, he continued his studies at Iowa State University and in May 2021 graduated with a bachelor’s in Biology, Biophysics, & Biochemistry. He found himself fascinated by Synthetic Biology & Microbial Engineering once he graduated. Therefore, he pursued opportunities at Duke University Pratt School of Engineering & Vaccine Research Center of NIH working on human iPSC cardiomyocyte differentiation & humanization of yeast post-translational pathway, respectively. He joined the Nair Lab at Tufts University as a PhD student to broaden his skills in microbial engineering and truly become a Biotechnology Engineer & Scientist. When he is not spending time thinking about biologics, he can be found at the local gym moving heavy weights repeatedly up & down for a defined number of repetitions.

Yiming Cai – Biology M.S. student
(Yiming.Cai_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’23 – )
Yiming graduated from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2023 with a B.S. in Biotechnology. At Rutgers University, he worked on the characterization of substrate specificity of 3C proteases using fluorescence-activated cell sorting and deep sequencing in Sagar Khare’s lab. At present, Yiming is working on the use of yeast lysate to produce serum-free culture media for artificial meat in the Nair lab.


Undergraduate Students

Joe Balkan – E ’24 (Joseph.Balkan_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Spring ’22 – )
Joe is working on cellular agriculture with Damyanti.

Alen Alshinbayev – E ’25 (Alen.Alshinbayev_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Spring ’22 – )
Alen is working on engineering enzymes in lactic acid bacteria with Rana.

Sam Littman – A ’25 (Samuel.Littman_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Fall ’22 – )
Sam is working on enhancing the stability of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase enzyme with Bec.

Hannah You – A ’26 (Hannah.You_at_tufts_dot_edu) (Spring ’24 – )
Hannah is working on Bacillus engineering with Jessica.


Alumni

Post-doc(s)

Dr. Entela Nako (Fall ’13 – Spring ’14) – Research Manager at Harvard University (as of Jun ’16).

Dr. Karishma Mohan (Summer ’19 – Summer ’20) – Organism Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks (as of Oct ’22).

Dr. Debika Choudhury (Spring ’19 – Spring ’21) – Post-doc at Cornell University (as of May ’21).

Dr. Vikas D. Trivedi (Summer ’17 – Spring ’22) – Scientist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (as of Feb ’22)

Dr. Todd C. Chappell (Summer ’20 – Summer ’23) – Co-founder of Enrich Bio (as of October ’23)

Graduate student(s)

Venkatesh Endalur Gopinarayanan – Biot Ph.D. (Fall ’12 – Spring ’18) – Scientist at LifeMine Therapeutics (as of July ’18).

Brett Irwin – BioE M.S. (Fall ’17 – Spring ’19) – Strain Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks (as of June ’19).

Sara A. Amin – CS Ph.D. (Fall ’13 – Spring ’19, co-advised w/Prof. Soha Hassoun) – Data Analyst at Walmart Technology (as of June ’19).

Josef R. Bober – ChE Ph.D. (Fall ’13 – Spring ’19) – Organism Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks (as of Nov ’19).

Zachary J. S. Mays – Biot Ph.D. (Fall ’14 – Summer ’20) – Organism Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks (as of Aug ’20).

Bruno Motta Nascimento – Biot Ph.D. (Fall ’14 – Spring ’21)

Sean F. Sullivan – Biot Ph.D. (Fall ’17 – Fall ’22) – Scientist I at Novozymes (NC) (as of Jun ’23).

Trevor B. Nicks – Biot Ph.D. (Fall ’17 – Summer ’23) – co-founder of Caravel Bio, Inc. (as of September ’23).

Todd C. Chappell – Biot Ph.D. + post-doc (Fall ’14 – Fall ’23) – co-founder of Enrich Bio, Inc. (as of October ’23)

Undergraduate(s)

Adam Helitzer, ChBE ’14 (Fall ’13 – Spring ’14) – Integration Engineer at Epic (as of August ’16).

Marilyn Allen – ChBE ’16 (Fall ’14 – Fall ’15) – Graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (as of August ’16).

Jeremy I. Marcus – CS/Bio ’16 (Summer ’14 – Fall ’15) – At Draper Labs in Cambridge, MA (as of August ’16).

Kaelyn Vik – ChBE ’16 (Spring ’15 – Spring ’16) – At Agios Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA (as of August ’16).

Cassidy Hubert – ChBE ’17 (Fall ’15 – Spring ’17) – Researcher at Princeton University, New Haven, CT (as of June ’17).

Kelsey-Claire Gallagher – ChBE ’18 (Fall ’16 – Spring ’18) – M.S. student at Tufts University (as of June ’18).

Taylor Hart – ChBE ’19 (Fall ’18 – Spring ’19) – Chemist at L’Oréal (as of Jan ’20).

Elizabeth Paul (Leadership Alliance Intern from University of Maryland, Baltimore County, ChBE’17) (Summer ’15) – Back at UMBC (as of August ’16).

Karlos Zachary (REU student from University of Minnesota, Duluth, ChBE ’19) (Summer ’17) – Back at UMinn (as of August ’17).

Emily Chicklis (REU student from Simmons College, Boston, A’18) (Summer ’17) – Back at Simmons (as of August ’17).

Elizabeth Chavez (REU student from the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill, Q-Bio ’19) (Summer ’18) – Back at UNC (as of August ’18).

Emma Meehan – ChBE ’20 (Fall ’18) – Back at Tufts after a semester abroad (as of August ’19).

Jacob Bryan (REU student from West Valley Community College, Saratoga, CA) (Summer ’19) – Back at WWCC (as of August ’19).

Alexis Barselau – Chem ’21 (Summer ’19 – Fall ’19) – Continuing at Tufts (as of January ’20).

Daniel M. Sellers – ChBE ’20 (Fall ’19 – Spring ’20) – Research technician in the Blaney lab at MIT (as of August ’20).

Athreya Ramesh – ChBE ’21  (Summer ’19 – Spring ’21) – Scientist at Pfizer (Andover, MA) (as of May ’21).

Joseph (Jack) Cutting – Biol ’22 (Spring ’20 – Spring ’22) – Ph.D. student at University of Rochester Medical Center (as of Sept ’22).

Arushi Kalia – E’23 UMass-Amherst (Summer ’22) – Back at UMass-Amherst (as of September ’22).

Ella Boateng – E’ 25 (Fall ’22 – Spring ’23).

High School Student(s)

Maya Vaishnaw (intern from Concord Academy) (Summer ’16) – Finishing high school (as of August ’16).


Old pictures of the lab:

October 2021 group photo. (L-R) Front: Bec, Prof. Nair, Sean, Rana. Back: Trevorm Aaron, Vikas. missing: Todd, Jack.

April 2021 group photo. (From top L-R) Trevor, Prof. Nair, Debika, Sean, Jack, Todd, Athreya, Vikas, Aaron, Bruno, Rana.

September 2019 group photo. (L-R) Front: Debika, Karishma, Prof. Nair, Daniel, Sean, Joe. Back: Aaron, Zac, Todd, Trevor, Bruno, Vikas. missing: Alexis, Athreya.

March 2019 group photo. (L-R) Sitting: Bruno, Zac, Prof. Nair, Aaron. Standing: Todd, Vikas, Trevor, Sean, Joe, Brett. missing: Taylor.

March 2018 group photo. (L-R) Sitting: Venkatesh, Trevor, Joe. Standing: Todd, Bruno, Aaron, Sean, Brett, Prof. Nair, Zac, Vikas.

April 2017 group photo. (L-R) Front: Venkatesh, Cassidy, Prof. Nair, Middle: Kelsey, Todd, Zac, Joe, Back: Bruno.

SONY DSC
May 2015 group photo. (L-R) Front: Venkatesh, Zac, Prof. Nair, Jeremy, Kaelyn, Marilyn. Back: Bruno, Todd, Joe.

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