Thomas Eng
Biologist Research Scientist
Deputy Director of Host Engineering, Joint Bioenergy Institute
Biography
Thomas Eng recieved his S.B. from MIT in Biology, conducted his undergraduate training with Hidde Ploegh, and was a technician with Terry Orr-Weaver. He received his PhD in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley and completed his postdoctoral training at Berkeley Lab; his current appointment is biologist research scientist/engineer. Eng also holds an affiliate faculty appointment at the University of Hawai’i, Hilo in the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management.
Research Interests
Our team at Berkeley Lab brings expertise with the microbial host to collaborate with experts in biomass development, analytical chemistry, and fermentation scaleup, addressing challenges in renewable bio-energy. My group is located at the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI) and is part of the Biofuels and Bioproducts Division (BBD), which is under the leadership of JBEI BBD Vice President Aindrila Mukhopadhyay.
Hands-on at the bench. Eng (right) makes time to train students at the bench. Brenda Wang (left), UCB Class of 2019, is now a NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Northwestern University. Workforce Development & Education Intern and Mentor Summer 2018. This work was part of the Berkeley Lab Undergraduate Research (BLUR) program, and was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS).
Research Areas: Microbial systems biology, physiology, genomics, genetics, CRISPR engineering, genome scale metabolic modeling, network node analysis, renewable energy, biofuels and bioproducts, sustainability, copy number variation.
Plasmid and strain requests: Please include as much information as possible; a JBEI accession number is required. Berkeley Lab will require an MTA agreement with your institution. Sorry, we cannot distribute strains that were not generated at Berkeley Lab.
Undergraduate students: UC Berkeley interested in exploring the use of multiplex CRISPR editing (such as with Cas12a/Cpf1) for rapid engineering in non-model microbes are invited to apply to work with me; please send me an email. For summer internship requests, please apply through the DOE-SULI Program (please note: application deadlines for summer sessions are generally in the previous fall semester).
Candidates for postdoctoral research: Positions are contingent upon funding. Please send me an email to inquire and describe your research interests.
Programs & Initiatives
Recent Publications
Related News
Biosciences Area FY24 LDRD Projects
The projects of 21 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY24 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.
Speeding up Biomanufacturing with a Turnkey Framework
Researchers from the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) developed a new framework that reduces the time of developing novel bioproducts. This new workflow, called Product Substrate Pairing (PSP), has already shown great promise for engineering strains that can convert common bacterial food sources into target molecules.
Biosciences Area FY23 LDRD Projects
The projects of 22 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY23 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.
