Research
Systems and Synthetic Biology
We aim to understand microbial gene regulatory networks and engineer microbes for addressing energy, environmental, and health issues. Specifically, we are interested in developing synthetic biology tools, constructing genetic circuits, and engineering regulatory RNAs in diverse bacteria. Learn more
Tae Seok Moon
Postdoctoral research at MIT and University of California-San Francisco provided Dr. Moon with expertise in the design and construction of genetic circuits. As a graduate student at MIT, he learned how to construct and optimize novel metabolic pathways to produce biochemicals that can replace oil-based chemicals. Combining his research experiences with more than five years experience in the biotechnology industry, he envisions his career as transforming biology research from an “observation” approach to a “synthesis-based engineering” activity to address energy, environment and health issues. Learn more about Dr. Moon
Recent News & Announcements
2021
March
Congratulations to Drew et al. for their paper published:
DM DeLorenzo, J Diao, R Carr, Y Hu and TS Moon. An improved CRISPR interference tool to engineer Rhodococcus opacus. ACS Synth. Biol. Link
Yuxin Tian joined our lab as a rotation student. Welcome!
February
Our alum Tatenda Shopera is among the researchers who developed one of the first vaccines for COVID-19 at Pfizer! He is featured on the news! Link
January
Alden Filko, Matt Lima, and Xinyue Mu joined our lab as rotation students. Welcome all!
2020
December
Tatenda, our lab alum, is part of the Pfizer team that developed one of the first Covid-19 vaccines. We are proud of you, Tatenda! Link
November
Steven Vo joins the group as a PhD student. Welcome!
Cooper Hostetler joins the group as a Graduate Rotation student. Welcome!
October
Congrats, Matt! Matt will serve as the President of the EBRC Student and Postdoc Association starting November, 2020.
September
Steven Vo joins the group as a Graduate Rotation student. Welcome!
Moon Research Group receives a grant from United States Department of Agriculture for “Development of kill-switches for biocontainment of genetically engineered microbes.” Link
August
Professor Moon gave an invited talk (virtually) at Southern Illinois University (Molecular Biology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry Program Seminar Series).
Professor Moon gave an invited talk (virtually) at the Workshop on Biological Control Mechanisms (Army Research Laboratory).
June
Congratulations to Matt and Austin for their paper published: MB Amrofell, AG Rottinghaus and TS Moon. Engineering microbial diagnostics and therapeutics with smart control. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 66, 11-17. (2020) Link
May
Moon Research Group receives a grant from the National Science Foundation for “Unifying synthetic small regulatory RNAs.” Link
Congratulations to Kirsten for her paper published: K Davis and TS Moon. Tailoring microbes to upgrade lignin. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 59, 23-29 (2020) Link
April
Drew receives a PhD Dissertation award. Congrats!
March
Our collaborative work was published: K Zhang, J Wei, K Huff Hartz, M Lydy, TS Moon, M Sander and KM Parker. Analysis of RNA interference (RNAi) biopesticides: double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) extraction from agricultural soils and quantification by RT-qPCR. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54, 4893−4902 (2020) Link