Kunal Mehta Email & Phone Number

* Technical proposal preparation, terms negotiation, strategic outreach, and lead generation* Career progression: Associate Director; Director

* Led a team of four to select four biomolecule targets for novel products and engineer microbes to produce them* Built a team of six to define strategy and execute a new R&D project to improve strain scalability. The strains we built were incorporated into Zymergen's biomolecule prototyping pipeline* Served as technical lead in evaluating investment into a new strain engineering program with a Fortune 500 partner. Coordinated with executives and scientists at both companies to enable a joint decision to begin the program.* Developed genetic tools to create multiplexed, combinatorial libraries of plasmids and strains resulting in three patent applications and deliveries of libraries of 2,000+ strains.* Career progression: Scientist I, II, III, Associate Director

* Integrated and optimized analytical techniques including mass spectrometry, HPLC, and NMR into an automated cloud lab. * Designed rigorous controls and implemented improvements across software and experimental procedure.

My PhD work involved building a cyanobacterium that produces hydrogen by photosynthesis, combining strain engineering and computational modeling. To support that, I developed a suite of tools to make cyanobacteria easier to engineer. I initiated a collaboration to do this with two other labs, and helped secure its seed funding. I've also guided the projects of three undergraduate researchers in the lab.

* Developed robust and portable droplet-interface bilayer platforms for the construction of sensing devices and energy-producing networks.* Worked with another research group to develop a method to attach individual channel proteins inside nanofabricated holes in inorganic membranes for chemical, biological and medical sensing applications. Initiated our laboratory’s contribution to the project.

Made extremely sensitive, low-noise electrical measurements on single alpha-Hemolysin channel proteins to distinguish the four DNA nucleotides for single-molecule DNA sequencing.

Doctor Of Philosophy, Bioengineering

Master Of Science, Chemical Biology

Bachelor Of Science Cum Laude, Bioengineering