Farren Isaacs, PhD

Advances
in high-throughput biology and biotechnology have led to an array of biological
insights in medicine, agriculture, evolutionary biology and studies of diverse
organisms. Harnessing the potential of species diversity makes biological
systems ideal to solve defining challenges, such as producing new drugs to
alleviate human disease and generating biologically derived fuels, chemicals
and materials to ensure environmental sustainability. In addition to a thorough understanding of biological
systems, achieving these goals requires safe and programmable control of
biological systems. In this
regard, scientists have been primarily using standard recombinant DNA
technologies, which have enabled our ability to perform genetics, but on a
limited scale. Our ability to
measure and modify genetic and biochemical molecules and their interactions in
pathways, cells and the environment remains a defining challenge. Thus, “basic enabling technologies”
that enhance our ability to engineer biology are needed.

The
Isaacs Laboratory is focused on developing foundational cellular and
biomolecular engineering technologies to understand and engineer biological
systems. Our approach is designed
to integrate engineering and evolution through the construction of genes, gene
networks and whole genomes alongside quantitative models to gain a better
understanding of whole biological systems. In turn, we utilize these insights to design and evolve
living cells with new, improved and desired function. We seek to uncover new properties of biological systems and
generate new phenotypes with the ultimate goal of applying these insights to
address global challenges in medicine, energy supply and the environment.