KUNJAPUR LAB
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Our Team

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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 2-3 graduate students to start in 2025-2026:


If you are a postdoc candidate who has experience in any of the following areas, then we are also interested in hearing from you:
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

Appointment
2024-             Thomas Willing Early Career Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
2019-2025     Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware


Education
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)

Bio
Aditya is from Houston, Texas, and interned for five summers with Shell and ExxonMobil as an undergraduate. His initial interest in biomolecular engineering was sparked by a desire to create renewable liquid transportation fuels by engineering microbes. As a graduate student, he realized the potential of microbial engineering to instead produce higher value products that are still often sourced from petroleum, especially those that contain naturally rare functional group chemistries. 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 designing cells to create and harness new-to-nature building blocks. When outside of lab, Aditya enjoys CrossFit, building in his woodshop, playing pop covers on the alto sax, and chasing his toddler and newborn.

​For more info on how Aditya became interested in synthetic biology, see this blog post from 2015 or this short chat with Science in 2024.

Recent Awards
2025: Gerard Mangone Young Scholar; Roberta Colman Innovation Award Co-Recipient; Biotechnology & Bioengineering Journal Daniel I.C. Wang Award
2024: University of Delaware College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award; American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Delaware Valley Section Outstanding Faculty Award; BioInnovation Institute & Science Grand Prize for Innovation
2023: Invited Contributor to the AIChE Journal Futures Issue; Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Early Career Award
2022: NIH Director's New Innovator Award; Office of Naval Research Young Investigator
2021: New Innovator Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research; Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence
 
Lab Coordinator
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Dana Arnold
B.S., Laboratory Management
danalab(at)udel(dot)edu
Doctoral Students & Postdocs
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Shelby Anderson

NIH CBI Fellow
​2024 Richard Wool Awardee
​B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology

sander(at)udel(dot)edu
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Neil Butler, Ph.D.

Finalist for DSM Kirk Apt Biotech Award
NSF GRFP Honorable Mention 
Ph.D., University of Delaware​
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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Monona Khare
B.S., Cornell University
mkhare(at)udel(dot)edu
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Chris Mayhugh

​NIH CBI Fellow
B.S. University of Alabama

cmayhugh(at)udel(dot)edu

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James VanAntwerp
(Co-Advised by Kelvin Lee)
NIH CBI Fellow
​B.S., Michigan State University

vanantj(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

 
Master's Students and Undergraduates
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Niteesha Adapala
M.S. Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, 2025
B.Tech. Bioinformatics, Sathyabama U. 2021
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Anu Buddhikot
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2026

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Defne Elbeyli

B.S. Chemical Engineering
2026

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Vishal Somasundaram
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2025

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Abigail Spangler
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2025

 

Alumni

Kunjapur Lab Alumni:
Name - Years in Lab - Status in Lab (UG = Undergrad | G = Grad | T = Technician | P = Post-Doc) 
→ Next Institution/Entity
​
​
Sabyasachi Sen - 2019-2025 - G 
→
Michaela Jones - 2019-2024 - G → MIT (Post-Doc) ChemE Rising Star
Neil Butler - 2019-2024 - G → Nitro Biosciences (Co-Founder)
Priyanka Nain - 2022-2024 - P → Corteva Agriscience
Amanda Rosier - 2022-2024 - P → Corteva Agriscience
Nastassja Corrado - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Wisconsin (Ph.D.)
Miyu Mudalamane - 2021-2024 - UG
→ MIT (Ph.D.) Goldwater Scholar & NSF Fellow
Josh Bryan - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.)
Alexander Tiso - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.)
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.) NSF Fellow
Khai Khee Kho - 2020-2022 - UG → Minnesota (Ph.D.) [declined]
Soumili Chattopadhyay - 2020-2021 - G → VaxCyte
Nathan Edwards - 2020 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.)
Vicky Lin - 2019 - UG → Johnson Matthey
Natalie Fuhr - 2019 - UG
→ ExxonMobil
Ryan Buchser - 2019-2021 - UG
→ UT-Austin (Ph.D.)

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

2024

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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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