UH Drug Discovery Institute

Research in the Cirino laboratory interfaces Chemical Engineering with the biological sciences, with emphases in biomolecular engineering, metabolic engineering, and biocatalysis. By applying biological design principles at the molecular level (e.g., engineer proteins) as well as the systems level (e.g., engineer metabolic pathways and gene regulation) the Cirino lab is creating novel microbial strains with improved biocatalytic efficiency (e.g. increased supply of NADPH to transformations of interest), and is designing novel biosensors by customizing regulatory proteins, with broad applications in synthetic biology and biocatalyst development.