Experience

Omniose

• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Scientist

  • Feb 2020 - Present

  Omniose (formerly VaxNewMo) is an early-stage biotechnology company developing polysaccharide conjugate vaccines against serious bacterial threats using its proprietary bioconjugation platform. I am working on many aspects developing our bioconjugate vaccines including - Bacterial strain engineering - DNA construct design, construction and testing - Bioreactor scale-up and process design to increase bioconjugate yields - Protein purification using FPLC - Protein engineering Omniose (formerly VaxNewMo) is an early-stage biotechnology company developing polysaccharide conjugate vaccines against serious bacterial threats using its proprietary bioconjugation platform. I am working on many aspects developing our bioconjugate vaccines including - Bacterial strain engineering - DNA construct design, construction and testing - Bioreactor scale-up and process design to increase bioconjugate yields - Protein purification using FPLC - Protein engineering



Washington University in St. Louis

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Researcher - Himadri Pakrasi Group

  • Jul 2016 - Feb 2020

  My postdoctoral fellowship studies revolved around genetic engineering of fast-growing cyanobacteria with the major aim being the production of high-value natural product alkaloids directly from CO2 and light energy. I also developed novel synthetic biology tools (including CRISPRi) for use in cyanobacteria and studied the role of alkane/alkene biosynthesis in these microbes. My postdoctoral fellowship studies revolved around genetic engineering of fast-growing cyanobacteria with the major aim being the production of high-value natural product alkaloids directly from CO2 and light energy. I also developed novel synthetic biology tools (including CRISPRi) for use in cyanobacteria and studied the role of alkane/alkene biosynthesis in these microbes.



University of Minnesota

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Researcher - John D Lipscomb Group

  • Jan 2016 - Jun 2016

• Graduate Research Assistant and Doctoral Candidate - John D Lipscomb Group

  • Jan 2011 - Dec 2015

  For my doctoral research, I worked in John D. Lipscomb's research group which focuses on studying the mechanisms of biological (enzymatic) dioxygen activation. My dissertation was entitled "Mechanistic and structural studies of the non-heme iron oxygenase enzymes protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase, CmlA, and CmlI". I studied the catalytic and regulatory mechanism of non-heme iron enzymes that activate molecular dioxygen (O2) for the reaction with organic substrates. I worked on three enzymes in particular: one is an aromatic ring-cleaving enzyme and the other two are involved in the biosynthesis of the antibiotic chloramphenicol. I primarily used a combination of X-ray crystallography, electron paramagnetic resonance and UV/visible spectroscopy, analytical chromatography, and steady-state and transient kinetic to perform my research. I also spent a significant portion of my time purifying enzyme and optimizing the purification protocols. Show less



Iowa State University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Assistant - Erik Vollbrecht Group

  • 2006 - 2010

  I worked in Vollbrecht group during my time as an undergraduate at ISU and for several months after graduation as a junior scientist. My research focused on understanding the meristem developmental pathways of Zea mays using genetic and biochemical techniques. I studied the spatio-temporal expression profiles of genes in involved in the development of various tissues and used protein-protein interaction of transcription factors involved in development of the corn meristem using co-immunoprecipitation to discover regulatory pathways. Show less