John Marken, PhD

I am a Resnick Sustainability Institute postdoctoral scholar at Caltech supervised by Bruce Hay. My work aims to develop a rigorous foundation for translating synthetic biology advances beyond the laboratory and into application contexts, with a particular focus on sustainability applications.

I approach this goal from both the engineering angle, by designing architectures for robust genetic circuit performance and developing theoretical frameworks for analyzing biomolecular systems, and from the scientific angle, by studying fundamental questions about how microbial physiology impacts the behavior of genetic circuits. Please see the Research page for more details.

I also work with the Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy to advocate for reform in the U.S. microbial biotechnology regulatory system to better promote innovation and safety in the synthetic biology industry. Please see the Public Policy page for more details.

I received my PhD in Bioengineering from Caltech, under the supervision of Richard Murray. Before that, I received my B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the College of William and Mary, where I was a member of the 2015 and 2016 iGEM teams and supervised the 2017 team. I was a member of the iGEM Measurement Committee for the 2018 season, where I helped conduct the iGEM Interlab Study.