KUNJAPUR LAB
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Our Team

For Prospective Members
Principal Investigator
Lab Members
​
​Alumni
 
The Kunjapur Lab is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.
​We celebrate the different backgrounds and perspectives that every lab member brings to our team.

​
For Prospective Members​
We are hiring! We are looking for a lab manager, 1 PhD student, & 1 post-doc to start in the 2023-2024 academic year:


We are seeking postdoc candidates who have experience in any of the following areas:
c
hemical biology, engineering microbial communities, or engineering soil bacteria
Postdoc applicants can email Dr. Kunjapur directly with their CV and a brief cover letter.

If you are a prospective graduate student who has an engineering undergraduate degree and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering PhD program.
If you are a prospective graduate student who has an undergraduate degree in the natural sciences and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Microbiology Graduate Program.
 
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Principal Investigator: Aditya M. Kunjapur

2019     Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
2018     Post-Doc, Genetics, Harvard Medical School (Advisor: George Church)
2015     PhD, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Kristala Prather)
2010     BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas (Advisor: Bruce Eldridge)

     Aditya is from Houston, Texas, and interned for 5 summers with Shell and ExxonMobil as an undergraduate. His interest in biomolecular engineering was sparked by a desire to develop renewable liquid transportation fuel alternatives, and he remains excited to create new routes to chemicals from renewable sources using biocatalysis. During his post-doc, he became fascinated by the enormous potential of designer bacteria for biomedical applications. Whether for healthcare or sustainability goals, Aditya is most interested in taking functional group chemistries that are underrepresented in nature and designing routes to introduce them onto building block molecules. When outside of lab, Aditya enjoys CrossFit, building things in his woodshop, messing around on the alto sax, and playing board games.
     For more info on how Aditya became interested in synthetic biology, see this blog post from 2015.

Recent Awards
2023 - Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Early Career Award
2022 - NIH Director's New Innovator Award
2022 - Office of Naval Research Young Investigator
2021 - New Innovator Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
2021 - Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence
2020 - American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 35 Under 35
2019 - Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) Fellow 
 
Graduate Students & Postdocs
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Shelby Anderson

NIH CBI Fellow
​B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology

sander(at)udel(dot)edu
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Neil Butler

NSF GRFP Honorable Mention 
​B.S., Penn State University

ndb(at)udel(dot)edu
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Avaniek Cabales
B.S., Rutgers University
avaniekc(at)udel(dot)edu

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Austin Desmarais
B.S. & B.A., Alma College
ades(at)udel(dot)edu

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Roman Dickey 
​B.S., Penn State University
​rdickey(at)udel(dot)edu
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Amanda Forti 
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. University of Rochester
​aforti(at)udel(dot)edu

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Jessica Gamba

M.S., University of Sao Paulo
jgamba(at)udel(dot)edu
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Madan Gopal

​(Co-advised by Wilfred Chen)
B.S. University of Texas

mgopal(at)udel(dot)edu
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Saloni Gupta
B.S., Visvesvaraya NIT
salonig(at)udel(dot)edu


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Michaela Jones
NIH CBI Fellow, ​NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
B.S., Cornell University
majones(at)udel(dot)edu
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Chris Mayhugh

​NIH CBI G1/G2 Fellow
B.S. University of Alabama

cmayhugh(at)udel(dot)edu
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Priyanka Nain
Ph.D., Indian Inst. of Tech - Delhi
prinain(at)udel(dot)edu

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Amanda Rosier

Ph.D., University of Delaware
amandaro(at)udel(dot)edu

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Sabyasachi Sen
B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
sen(at)udel(dot)edu
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D'Jana Wyllis
NIH CBI Fellow, GEM Fellow
​B.S., Columbia University

djanaw(at)udel(dot)edu

 
Undergraduate Students
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Josh Bryan
B.S. Chemical Engineering
​2024
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Anu Buddhikot
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2026

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Nastassja Corrado
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2024


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Defne Elbeyli

B.S. Chemical Engineering
2026

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Ishika Govil
B.S. Chemical Engineering
B.S. Computer Science
NSF GRFP Recipient
Barry Goldwater Scholar
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Miyu Mudalamane
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2024

​
Barry Goldwater Scholar

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Vishal Somasundaram
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2025

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Abby Spangler
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2025
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Alexander Tiso
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2024
 

Alumni

Kunjapur Lab Alumni:
Name - Years in Lab - Status in Lab (UG = Undergrad / G = Grad / T = Technician / P = Post-Doc) - Next Institution

Ishika Govil - 2020-2023 - UG - MIT (Ph.D.) Goldwater Scholar & NSF Fellow
Morgan Sulzbach - 2019-2023 - G - Proskauer
Sean Wirt - 2019-2022 - UG - MIT (Ph.D.)
NSF Fellow
Shalom Fadullon - 2021 - UG - Northeastern (Ph.D.)
Khai Khee Kho - 2020-2022 - UG - Minnesota (Ph.D.) [declined]
Soumili Chattopadhyay - 2020-2021 - G - VaxCyte
Nathan Edwards - 2020 - UG - Delaware (M.S.)
Vicky Lin - 2019 - UG
Natalie Fuhr - 2019 - UG
Ryan Buchser - 2019-2021 - UG - UT-Austin (Ph.D.)


Before Delaware:
Emily Niu - 2018 - UG - Then: MIT - After: Bain & Company
Aditya Jog - 2018 - UG - MIT
Lucas Brown - 2018 - T - Then: Harvard - After: Rice University
Karen Noguera - 2017-2018 - T - Then: Harvard - After: U. Indiana - Bloomington
Peter Smith - 2017-2018 - G - Harvard Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Devon Stork - 2016-2018 - G - Then: Harvard - After: Tenza Bio
Jason Hyun - 2014-2015 - UG - Then: MIT - After: Manus Biosciences
Asmawaw Wassie - 2013 - UG - Then: MIT - After: MIT Biological Engineering PhD
Nikita Khlystov - 2012-2014 - UG - Then: MIT - After: Stanford Chemical Engineering PhD
Spencer Wenck - 2012-2013 - UG - Then: MIT - After: Boston Consulting Group
Bernardo Cervantes - 2012 - UG - Then: Berkeley - After: MIT Microbiology PhD
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Snapshots of the Team
2023
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2022

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2021

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2020

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2019
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Location
The Kunjapur Lab
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University of Delaware
150 Academy Street
​CLB 358/362/245/254/126
Newark, DE 19716

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