Members
Arjun Khakhar
Assistant professor, Department of Biology
Email: khakhar@colostate.edu
Bio: I am passionate about fighting global hunger and malnutrition. My major hobbies are cooking, making art, and reading. Science fiction is my favorite genre and I love that my job gives me the opportunity to bring some of the things I have read about closer to reality. I grew up in Mumbai, India and have been working in the field of synthetic biology since 2015.
Tawni Bull
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: tawni.bull@colostate.edu
Bio: I was born and raised on the Western Slope in Colorado where I helped with our family farm. Seeing the difficulties of farming first-hand, I became passionate about improving agricultural crops and practices to help benefit farmers. I received my PhD from UC Davis in Horticulture and Agronomy studying the genetic loci important for in vitro regeneration and developing methods for improved regeneration in lettuce. I love to read thriller/suspense novels and to go on weekend adventures with my husband and our two corgis, Kya and Luna.
Lauren Farina
Lab manager
Email: lauren.farina@colostate.edu
Bio: I am interested in the improvement of agricultural crops and systems. After working in plant breeding for agriculture, I look forward to approaching such topics from a synthetic biology perspective. I grew up in the Midwest in Wisconsin and Minnesota and am excited to be close to the mountains because I love skiing and hiking.
Max Combest
Research Technician
Email: max.combest@colostate.edu
Bio: I am fascinated by all things in biology, but my curiosity has led me to focus on plants and their viruses. I want to learn how to use viruses as tools to study plant biology and develop technologies that can be used to address pressing issues facing humanity, particularly malnutrition. My undergraduate studies were in biochemistry at the University of Kansas, and I received a Master’s in botany and plant pathology from Oregon State. I believe that synthetic biology has the transformative potential to bring novel developments to biotechnology and agriculture, and I’m more than excited to be involved with this lab.
Dylan Moss
Research Technician
Email: Dylan.Moss2@colostate.edu
Bio: I became interested in synthetic biology while taking a seminar course with Professor Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley, where I completed my undergrad in Integrative Biology. This seminar made me very excited about the potential of CRISPR-Cas-based tools, and I subsequently became involved at Steven Jacobsen's Lab at UCLA where I worked on developing tools to manipulate DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Prior to this experience I worked at UCSF's Children's Hospital of Oakland Research Institute with UCB Emeritus Bruce Ames where I studied the epigenetic effects of Vitamin D. I am very excited about the unique opportunities that synthetic biology provides for us to manipulate genomes and gene expression, and am thrilled to be working at Arjun's Lab.
Noah Hoglund
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: noah.hoglund@colostate.edu
Bio: Ever since I was a little child, I dreamt of flying and that dream has been amplified by my past experiences of flying helicopters in the US Army. I am now working towards completing my undergraduate degree in biology with the intent of graduating and immediately transitioning to a PhD. in cellular and molecular biology. This is in pursuit of one day becoming an astronaut and studying science in space.
Dahlia Kopycienski
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: dahlia.kopycienski@colostate.edu
Bio: My passions include solving global conservation issues through synthetic biology. I grew up in Maui, Hi, where I witnessed the rapid degradation of coral reefs. I believe synthetic biology can be used to tackle global issues such as climate induced coral bleaching, and many more. My goal is to increase my knowledge on engineering mutualistic systems in order to contribute to research in conserving symbiotic organisms in nature. Outside of my studies at CSU I spend my time painting, caring for my plants, cooking, and reading fantasy.
Sam Sutton
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: sam.sutton@colostate.edu
Bio: I am an undergraduate student at Colorado State University studying biology. I have always wanted to drive science forward and help make the world a better place. The Arjun Lab feels like a great place to do these things. For my future I am considering going to graduate school or going into professional research. My interests include skiing and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Working on genetic modification feels like using transmutation magic and I think that is super cool.