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:
chemical 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.
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:
chemical 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. KunjapurAppointment
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 - Co-Recipient, Roberta Colman Innovation at the Chemistry Biology Interface Award & Lectureship 2025 - Biotechnology & Bioengineering Journal Daniel I.C. Wang Award 2024 - University of Delaware College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award 2024 - American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Delaware Valley Section Outstanding Faculty Award 2024 - BioInnovation Institute & Science Grand Prize for Innovation 2023 - Invited Contributor and Lecturer for the AIChE Journal Futures Issue 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 - AIChE 35 Under 35 2019 - Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) Fellow |
Lab Coordinator
Dana Arnold
B.S., Laboratory Management
danalab(at)udel(dot)edu
B.S., Laboratory Management
danalab(at)udel(dot)edu
Doctoral Students & Postdocs
Shelby AndersonNIH CBI Fellow
2024 Richard Wool Awardee B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology sander(at)udel(dot)edu |
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 |
Avaniek Cabales
B.S., Rutgers University
avaniekc(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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Saloni Gupta
B.S., Visvesvaraya NIT
salonig(at)udel(dot)edu |
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Chris MayhughNIH CBI Fellow
B.S. University of Alabama cmayhugh(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
Niteesha Adapala
M.S. Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, 2025
B.Tech. Bioinformatics, Sathyabama U. 2021 |
Lekha Antala
B.S. Biomedical Engineering
2027 |
Anu Buddhikot
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2026 |
Defne ElbeyliB.S. Chemical Engineering
2026 |
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Justin Swing
B.S. Chemical Engineering
2025
2025
Alumni
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Kunjapur Lab Alumni:
Name - Years in Lab - Status in Lab (UG = Undergrad | G = Grad | T = Technician | P = Post-Doc) → Next Institution/Entity 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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