Jay D. Keasling

Divisions

Biological Systems and Engineering

• Biodesign

Biography

One of the foremost authorities on synthetic biology, Jay D. Keasling is Senior Faculty Scientist for Biosciences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Hubbard Howe, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biochemical Engineering in the Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute and leads a groundbreaking research program focused on engineering microorganisms to produce biofuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. 

Research Interests

• Harnessing biology to address diverse critical global challenges in the areas of renewable biomanufacturing, human health, and bioenergy.
• Engineering microbes to produce drugs, chemicals, and fuels.
• Developing foundational tools for engineering metabolism inside cells.
• Creating novel metabolic pathways to produce unnatural molecules.
• Designing robust microbial hosts for producing chemicals under a variety of industrial conditions.
• Applying these methods and tools to important societal problems, such as producing the antimalarial drug artemisinin, a variety of commodity and specialty chemicals, and biofuels.