Lab news also on Twitter: @sarkarlab and @casarkar
 

  • February 2023 - Ayako successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations, Dr. Ohoka!
     
  • January 2023 - Ayako published a paper in ACS Synthetic Biology describing a method to recover low-affinity binders during in vitro selections. Congratulations, Ayako!
     
  • November 2022 - Paulina won the 3-Minute Thesis competition at the University of Minnesota, presenting her research on Alzheimer's disease! (And she won the People's Choice award to boot.) Congratulations, Paulina!
     
  • October 2022 - Harish's work on cancer dormancy was highlighted by the College of Science & Engineering!
     
  • September 2022 - Bence and Wes published a paper in Nature Communications describing MVsim, a GUI-based simulator for facile model-guided analysis and design of multivalent systems, including multispecific and multi-ligand interactions. Congratulations, Bence and Wes!
     
  • July 2022 - Qiuge has her recent work on engineering site-specific recombination dynamics highlighted in the press! University of Minnesota Newswise Science Advisory Board
     
  • July 2022 - Qiuge published a paper in Nature Communications describing a model-guided approach for rationally dialing in rates of site-specific recombination with demonstrated applications in gene circuit design. Congratulations, Qiuge!
     
  • May 2022 - Qiuge successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations, Dr. Zhang!
     
  • February 2022 - Casim is elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
     
  • January 2022 - George published a paper in Scientific Reports showing how ribosome display can be used to identify binding paratopes in plant immune receptors. Congratulations, George!
     
  • January 2022 - Riley Duryea joins the lab. Welcome, Riley!
     
  • November 2021 - George, with contributions from Ayako, published a paper in Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology describing a strategy for creating a protein binder from sea lamprey immunization followed by protein chimerization to improve its solubility. Congratulations, George and Ayako!
     
  • May 2021 - George successfully defends his thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Markou!
     
  • March 2021 - Kaylie is selected to receive an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations, Kaylie!
     
  • March 2021 - Casim receives a Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.
     
  • January 2021 - Harish published a paper in Biophysical Journal describing a method for quantifying cell states and state transitions regulated by intracellular biomolecular networks. Congratulations, Harish!
     
  • July 2020 - Casim is appointed Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
     
  • May 2020 - The lab is awarded a COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant from the Institute for Engineering in Medicine.
     
  • May 2020 - The lab, with collaborator Prof. Fumi Katagiri, is awarded a new grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the USDA.
     
  • May 2020 - Casim is selected for a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH.
     
  • February 2020 - The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH has published a science highlight on Wes' and Bence's PNAS paper!
     
  • January 2020 - A new textbook, Quantitative Fundamentals of Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering, co-authored by Dane Wittrup, Bruce Tidor, Ben Hackel, and Casim, has been published by the MIT Press.
     
  • January 2020 - Wes and Bence have their recent work on multivalent binding dynamics highlighted in the press! University of Minnesota EurekAlert! Newswise
     
  • November 2019 - Wes and Bence published a paper in PNAS describing their work in developing a new quantitative framework for understanding and predicting multivalent binding dynamics. Congratulations, Wes and Bence!
     
  • November 2019 - George is selected to receive NSF funding to attend the Cell-Free Systems Conference! Congratulations, George!
     
  • September 2019 - Harish is selected as the best cancer poster presenter at the Institute for Engineering in Medicine Annual Conference! Congratulations, Harish!
     
  • April 2019 - Jennifer is selected to receive an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations, Jennifer!
     
  • October 2018 - Zi, with collaborators in Prof. Qing Nie's laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, receives an Interdisciplinary Opportunity Award from the NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research! Congratulations, Zi!
     
  • September 2018 - Victor is selected to receive an NIH Predoctoral Fellowship! Congratulations, Victor!
     
  • September 2018 - Zi receives a travel award to attend the Multiscale Cell Fate Symposium. Congratulations, Zi!
     
  • September 2018 - Carissa Dock joins the lab. Welcome, Carissa!
     
  • July 2018 - Qiuge Zhang joins the lab. Welcome, Qiuge!
     
  • June 2018 - The lab, with collaborator Prof. Samira Azarin, is awarded a new R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the NIH.
     
  • April 2018 - Breanna is selected for an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award. Congratulations, Breanna!
     
  • April 2018 - Ayako and Kristen are selected to receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! Congratulations, Ayako and Kristen!
     
  • November 2017 - Jennifer Kang joins the lab. Welcome, Jennifer!
     
  • November 2017 - Paulina Eberts and Kristen Lemke join the lab. Welcome, Paulina and Kristen!
     
  • August 2017 - George is selected as an inaugural ASPB Conviron Scholar! Congratulations, George!
     
  • June 2017 - Paige Wissel joins the lab. Welcome, Paige!
     
  • May 2017 - Honoree is selected for an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award. Congratulations, Honoree!
     
  • February 2017 - George is awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the USDA! Congratulations, George!
     
  • November 2016 - Ayako Ohoka and Victor Garcia join the lab. Welcome, Ayako and Victor!
     
  • November 2016 - Harish Venkatachalapathy joins the lab. Welcome, Harish!
     
  • September 2016 - The lab is part of an interdisciplinary team that has been awarded a UMN Grand Challenges research grant.
     
  • August 2016 - Bence Bruncsics joins the lab. Welcome, Bence!
     
  • August 2016 - The lab is awarded a new R21 grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH.
     
  • August 2016 - Honoree Thor joins the lab. Welcome, Honoree!
     
  • February 2016 - Congratulations to George for being awarded an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Minnesota!
     
  • November 2015 - Meryl Lewis joins the lab. Welcome, Meryl!
     
  • November 2015 - Zi Ye joins the lab. Welcome, Zi!
     
  • September 2015 - Fred Sadler joins the lab. Welcome, Fred!
     
  • May 2015 - Spencer Duncan joins the lab. Welcome, Spencer!
     
  • May 2015 - Irena is the winner of the 2015 UMN Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Award! Congratulations, Irena!
     
  • April 2015 - The lab is awarded a new R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH.
     
  • April 2015 - Tiffany is selected for an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award. Congratulations, Tiffany!
     
  • March 2015 - Dr. Wesley Errington joins the lab. Welcome, Wes!
     
  • November 2014 - The Minnesota iGEM team's accomplishments are highlighted by the College of Biological Sciences and the Minnesota Daily.
     
  • November 2014 - The lab, with collaborator Prof. Burckhard Seelig, is awarded a new grant from the BioTechnology Institute.
     
  • November 2014 - The Minnesota iGEM team wins a Gold Medal and Best Overgrad Environment Project at the Giant Jamboree in Boston! Congratulations, Gopher iGEMmers!
     
  • October 2014 - Tiffany Lo joins the lab. Welcome, Tiffany!
     
  • September 2014 - Our recent ACS Synthetic Biology paper is one of the most read articles in the journal in the past year!
     
  • July 2014 - Igor is promoted to Research Associate. Congratulations, Igor!
     
  • April 2014 - Congratulations to George on receiving an honorable mention in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship competition!
     
  • February 2014 - Daphne has developed a new web tool, NP-Sticky, which can aid in optimizing DNA ligation reactions. Check it out, along with her new article describing the tool.
     
  • February 2014 - The lab is part of an interdisciplinary team, led by Prof. Yiannis Kaznessis and Prof. Gary Dunny, which received a grant from the Institute for Engineering in Medicine.
     
  • January 2014 - Chemical & Engineering News highlights work done by Mike, Avin, Peter, and Ashwin!
     
  • November 2013 - Irena is selected for an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award. Congraulations, Irena!
     
  • November 2013 - George Markou joins the lab. Welcome, George!
     
  • September 2013 - Irena Cich joins the lab. Welcome, Irena!
     
  • August 2013 - The lab, with collaborator Prof. Matthew Lazzara, is awarded a new grant from the Directorate for Engineering at the NSF.
     
  • July 2013 - We're moving! We are excited to be joining the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota!
     
  • July 2013 - The lab is awarded a new R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH.
     
  • June 2013 - Dr. Igor Dodevski joins the lab. Welcome, Igor!