Chemical Engineering Seminar

Synthetic Biology for Human Health: RNA Sensors, Protein Circuits, and Machine-Guided Humanization

Abstract: How do we design biological systems as "smart medicine" that sense patients' states, process the information, and respond accordingly? To realize this vision, we engineer towards a "simple" goal: producing specific proteins in the right cells at the right time. We focus on controllers compatible with RNA delivery, because they can leverage the superior safety of mRNA vectors compared to more conventional DNA vectors, and offer additional benefits such as robust performance and compact delivery. I will share how we continue to develop a protease platform to program intercellular communications, and how we co-opt RNA editing to create sensors for transcript markers that represent cell types/states and ligands that represent extracellular environments. I will also discuss how we adopt and create AI/ML tools to address key obstacles we encountered, especially for minimizing the immunogenic risk of our engineered components.

Bio Dr. Xiaojing Gao is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He received a B.S. in Biology from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University. He received his postdoctoral training in Biology and Biological Engineering at Caltech. Some of his recent recognitions include the BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation and NIH's New Innovator Award (DP2).