Author Archives: jblucks

Helen tan was awarded summer research funding as part of Cornell’s engineering learning initiatives (ELI) program. The ELI program enhances undergraduate learning by providing opportunities for students to engage in cooperative learning and undergraduate research. As part of this program, Helen will be working with David this summer on a project to better understand RNA folding inContinue reading “Helen to receive an engineering learning initiatives (ELI) grant for summer research”

Julius has been named to the editorial advisory board of a new journal published by the American Chemical Society dedicated to research in synthetic biology and systems bioscience. The journal, headed by editor-in-chief Chris A. Voigt of MIT, is the first journal dedicated to the growing field of synthetic biology, and is already making great strides in publishing cuttingContinue reading “Julius named to editorial advisory board of ACS Synthetic Biology Journal”

Kyle and Sarai have been awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowship. The NSF graduate fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in science and engineering, and is one of the most highly sought after awards at this stage of Kyle and Sarai’s careers. NSF fellows have gone on to become recognized leaders in their field,Continue reading “Kyle and Sarai win NSF Graduate Fellowships!”

Another fine piece of work done while Julius was a Miller Fellow in the Arkin Lab RNA SynBio group. In this paper, we show how to use computational methods to uncover key determinants of RNA-RNA interaction specificity in a trans-acting RNA mechanism that regulates translation (the RNA-IN/OUT system from transposon IS10). We developed these modelsContinue reading “Julius has a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology on rationally designing orthogonal RNA translational regulators”

This is a fine piece of work done while Julius was a Miller Fellow in the Arkin Lab RNA SynBio group.  In the paper, we show how naturally-occurring trans-acting RNAs can be fused to aptamers (RNA structures that bind to other biomolecules) to allosterically control their regulatory function.  Along the way we showed how SHAPEContinue reading “Julius has a new paper in Nucleic Acids Research on engineering allosteric RNA regulators”

Sarai graduated from Yale with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. Sarai is interested in the principles of RNA design, and applying these to design new functionalities for RNAs. In her free time she enjoys dance, cooking and baking something delicious.

Jay Park, a junior CBE major in the Lucks Lab has been chosen by Genentech to win the Scheele Outstanding Junior Award. The award “recognizes a student who excels in scholarship, leadership, and campus activities, and is given to a student who “upon graduation will be a positive reflection of Cornell in the industrial ChemicalContinue reading “Jay Park Wins Genentech Scheele Outstanding Junior Award!”

Kyle graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. He is interested in future career as an entrepreneur, and has spent his summers interning at companies including Genentech, Inc. and the former Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In his spare time, Kyle participates in intramural sports and advises the NY D chapter of Tau BetaContinue reading “Kyle Watters joins the Lucks Lab!”

Organized by Dan Gibson, Sang Yup Lee and Pam Silver, this is looking like a who’s who of Synthetic Biology –http://www.csh-asia.org/design11.html.  Julius is talking in the ‘Designing with RNA’ section.

Welcome Jay Park, Helen Tan and Matt Carter!