Open Positions
Postdoctoral position - (updated December 10, 2012)
The DeLisa laboratory seeks applications for a postdoctoral research associate. A Ph.D. in chemical/biomolecular engineering, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, microbiology or other related field is required. Interested candidates should contact Professor DeLisa directly by email: md255 at cornell dot edu
Recent Press
DeLisa selected as 2013 Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator
DeLisa to deliver invited talk on Protein Engineering at 4th ICBE Meeting
Entrepreneur turns bacterial daydream into successful start-up
Quality-control mechanism found in bacteria
Cornell Chronicle, PhysOrg.com, Scientific Computing
Bacterial machinery tracks the shape and quality of proteins
A sweet success! Our method for engineering bacteria to create eukaryotic glycoproteins
NatureAsia.com, Nature Chemical Biology
Build new drugs “on demand” with bacteria
From pharma foe to meds making friend: E. coli changes its ways
From scourge to saint: E. coli bacteria becomes a factory for sugar-modified proteins
Cornell Press Office, EurekAlert, Science Newsline
New method of bacterial cell engineering can produce better, cheaper drug therapies
Cornell Chronicle, Medical News Today, PhysOrg.com, Science Daily
Glycobia is first to open in University's new McGovern Center for startups
Ithaca Journal, Cornell Chronicle, Cornell Sun
Professor DeLisa’s Beckman Young Investigator bio is now online
Maryland Alumni Excel in Academia, Research
UConn Alumnus Works to Engineer Proteins
The Scientist: Professor DeLisa looks to his gut for protein engineering
MIT Technology Review Young Investigator delivering more medicine from microbes
Nature Medicine: From pond scum to pharmacy shelf
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery: New vaccine platform?
New vaccine method is cheaper and more effective
Vaccine News Daily, Bionity, ECNMag “The Cutting Edge”, PhysOrg, Cornell Chronicle
Nature-inspired technology creates engineered antibodies to fight specific diseases
Bionity, PhysOrg, Cornell Chronicle
Cornell Biotech Training Program to be led by DeLisa
Read about the 2010 Cornell iGEM team co-advised by Professor DeLisa
Cornell iGEM Team wins a top prize at 2011 iGEM World Championship Jamboree
Vybion licenses ProCode platform
Vybion partners with Corgenix and Meridian Life Sciences for ProCode applications
Team jams bacteria 'talk' to boost bio-product yields
Biology Online, Innovations Report
Olin Hall News: Delivering more medicine from microbes
College of Engineering Faculty Profile: Professor DeLisa
College of Engineering Spotlight on Students: Malinka Walaliyadde
EZRA Magazine Spotlight on DeLisa group member M-P Robinson
DeLisa named ACS Young Investigator
DeLisa receives inaugural Daniel I.C. Wang Award
DeLisa to deliver Colburn Lecture April 24
DeLisa receives the Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship
NYSTAR announces $3.7 million in grants to universities to retain faculty
National Academies news: Young engineers selected to participate in engineering symposium
Two Cornell faculty members receive NSF 'Early Career' awards
Other News Items
May 2013 - Welcome to graduate student Erin Stephens who will be joining the DeLisa lab from the field of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology (BMCB). Erin is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and will be working on ubiquibodies .
May 2013 - Welcome to graduate students Arvi Natarajan and May Taw who will be joining the DeLisa lab from the field of Microbiology. Arvi will be working on ribosome engineering and May will be working on protein translocation pathways.
March 2013 - Congratulations to Sean O’Brien who successfully defended his PhD thesis (B exam) on March 25, 2013.
January 2013 - Congratulations to Alyse Portnoff who was honored with a Best Poster Award at the 4th International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering (ICBE) in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Alyse’s poster described her work on engineering a new protein silencing technology based on “ubiquibodies”. Go here for the story.
August 2012 - The cover story of the August 20 issue of C&E News explores the challenging path to becoming a chemical entrepreneur and profiles selected trailblazers on the what, why, and how of turning ideas into new businesses. DeLisa is one of the featured chemical entrepreneurs. Read more here.
August 2012 - The greenfluorescentblog discusses how to evolve your own GFP. Our superfast GFP, which was isolated by exploiting the cell’s protein secretion quality control mechanisms, is highlighted. Read more here.
July 2012 - Our paper describing the isolation of Tat translocase mutations that suppress protein folding quality control and lead to export of misfolded proteins was recently accepted in PNAS. Go here for the article and here for a story in the Cornell Chronicle.
July 2012 - Congratulations to Charles Haitjema who successfully defended his PhD thesis (B exam) on July 23, 2012. Charles will be starting a postdoctoral position with Dr. Michelle O’Malley at UCSB in the fall.
May 2012 - Congratulations to Amy Karlsson who has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research program will focus on engineering molecular recognition to study and treat fungal disease. Go here for more details.
May 2012 - Welcome to Dr. Yi Chai who will be joining the DeLisa lab as a postdoctoral research associate. Yi is an expert in microbial pathway engineering, bacterial genetics and biochemistry. She will be working on directed evolution of glycosyltransferases and optimization of bacterial glycosylation.
April 2012 - Congratulations to Jason Boock who was selected as a fellow of the NSF-funded Grass Roots GK-12 Program at Cornell. The programs main focus is to advance education in renewable energy and alternative energy-related issues.
March 2012 - Juan Valderrama and Adam Fisher’s paper on engineering eukaryotic glycosylation pathways in E. coli appeared in Nature Chemical Biology (here), was featured in the journal’s press release (here) and is mentioned on the cover of the May issue!
February 2012 - Welcome to Dr. Jenny Baker who will be joining the DeLisa lab as a postdoctoral research associate. Jenny is an expert in riboswitches, bacterial genetics and biochemistry. She will arrive this June.
January 2012 - Amy Karlsson’s paper on membrane-anchored display of folded proteins appeared in the Journal of Molecular Biology (here) and is featured on the February 10 cover!
November 2011 - Welcome to Dr. Anne Ollis who will be joining the DeLisa lab as a postdoctoral research associate. Anne is an expert in bacterial genetics and biochemistry and will be working in the area of bacterial glycobiology. She will arrive in Ithaca this January.
November 2011 - Welcome to Dr. Hyeon-Cheol Lee who will be joining the DeLisa lab as a postdoctoral research associate. Hyeon-Cheol is an expert in microbial engineering and will be working on the development of antibodies against difficult targets.
October 2011 - Congratulations to Eda Celik-Akdur who was recently appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey.
May 2011 - Congratulations to Tom Mansell who defended his PhD thesis (B exam) on May 12, 2011. Tom will be starting as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Ryan Gill at the University of Colorado, Boulder this fall.
April 2011 - Congratulations to Mark Rocco who defended his PhD thesis (B exam) on April 19, 2011. Mark will be starting an NSF EAPSI postdoctoral position with Dr. Daniel Christ at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia this summer.
April 2011 - Congratulations to Taylor Stevenson who received an NSF Graduate Fellowship.
April 2011 - Congratulations to M-P Robinson who received a Ford Foundation Fellowship and an NSF Graduate Fellowship.
January 2011 - Congratulations to Amy Karlsson who received an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship for her work focused on silencing of cancer targets using intrabodies.
January 2011 - Welcome to new DLRG lab member Taylor Stevenson. Taylor is a first year BME student.
June 2010 - Congratulations to Alyse Portnoff and Jason Boock who each passed their A exams (PhD candidacy exam) on June 29 and 30, respectively.
February 2010 - Congratulations to Sean O’Brien who passed his A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on February 25, 2010.
February 2010 - The DLRG went skating at Lynah Rink. The event was a huge success - only 1 big wipeout! Pictures.
February 2010 - Our paper describing the use of engineered vesicles for delivering protein subunit vaccines appeared in PNAS (here). This work signals the possibility of using bacterial vesicles as a robust and tunable technology platform for a new generation of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. Various news outlets have picked up the story and features can be found in Nat Rev Drug Discov and SciBX.
January 2010 - Welcome to Dr. Jack Huang who joined the DLRG as a postdoctoral fellow. Jack earned a prestigious fellowship from the Taiwanese government to develop new vaccination strategies using engineered bacterial vesicles.
November 2009 - Welcome to new DLRG lab members Rick Pampuro, Michael-Paul Robinson, Linxiao Chen, Sai Pooja Mahajan and Stacey Meadley.
October 2009 - Congratulations to Mark Rocco who passed his A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on October 5, 2009.
October 2009 - The DeLisa lab wins the CBE Department Halloween Costume Party! Pictures.
August 2009 - Read our “New and Views” article in Nature Biotechnology on how controlling the spatial organization of sequential metabolic enzymes may provide a general strategy for increasing the production of valuable compounds. Related work by our lab appeared in Metabolic Engineering (here) and was featured on the cover!
August 2009 - Congratulations to Ritsdeliz Perez-Rodriguez who defended her PhD thesis (B exam) on August 10, 2009. Rits will be starting a position at Abbott Laboratories this fall.
May 2009 - Congratulations to Jan Kostecki who successfully defended his PhD thesis examination (B exam) on May 11, 2009. Jan will be starting a position with local biotech company Vybion, Inc. later this summer.
April 2009 - Congratulations to Steve Linderman who was named a Goldwater Scholar. Story.
March 2009 - Congratulations to Cassie Guarino who successfully passed her A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on March 17, 2009.
March 2009 - Welcome to Dr. Amy Karlsson who will be joining the DeLisa lab as a postdoctoral research associate. Amy is an expert in the development of peptide-based inhibitors of human pathogens. She will arrive in Ithaca this summer.
February 2009 - Welcome to Dr. Eda Celik-Akdur who will join the DeLisa Group as a postdoctoral research associate. Eda is an expert in enzyme and therapeutic protein expression and analytical techniques such as MALDI-ToF MS. She will arrive in Ithaca this summer.
December 2008 - Welcome to Christine Endicott who officially joined the DeLisa Laboratory this fall. Christine is a PhD candidate who will be working on bacterial glycosylation.
December 2008 - Congratulations to Didi Waraho who successfully defended her PhD. Dr. Waraho will be moving back to Thailand to begin as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thornburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok.
Summer 2008 - Congratulations to Adam Fisher, Matt Marrichi and Lydia Contreras who all successfully defended their PhDs. Dr. Fisher will become Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Molecular Biology at Glycobia, LLC. Dr. Contreras will be a NIH Post-doctoral Fellow at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, NY in the laboratory of Dr. Marlene Belfort before starting as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Marrichi has accepted a post-doctoral position with Dr. Dorothy Reilly at Genentech.
Click here for some related pictures.
July 2008 - Ritsdeliz Perez-Rodriguez has been selected to participate in the BEST Symposium hosted by The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, on September 16 and 17, 2008. This two-day event gives participants an opportunity to explore careers in the chemical industry and to showcase their abilities. Rits will give a short presentation of her scientific work. More info.
July 2008 - Congratulations to Tom Mansell who successfully passed his A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on July 10, 2008.
May 2008 - Congratulations to Rob Conrado who successfully passed his A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on May 22, 2008.
May 2008 - Congratulations to Lydia Contreras who has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin. Lydia’s appointment will begin following her postdoc with Marlene Belfort at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, NY. Her research program seeks to combine biomolecular engineering, genetic studies and computational modeling to understand molecular features that lead to the specific recognition and interaction of RNAs and proteins.
February 2008 - Our paper describing a novel genetic selection for protein-protein interactions appeared in PNAS. Go here for the paper. Go here for the press release.
Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 - Congratulations to Lydia Contreras and Adam Fisher who were each honored with an Austin Hooey award for outstanding research progress towards their PhD degree. Each presented a seminar to faculty and graduate students in the department. More info.
October 2007 - Congratulations to Jan Kostecki who passed his A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on October 15, 2007.
July 2007 - Our intracellular ribosome display paper is available online at Journal of Molecular Biology. Learn more.
March 2007 - DeLisa and Jason Haugh (NC State) recently co-organized the First International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering (ICBE), sponsored by SBE. The journal Chemical Engineering Progress ran an article highlighting J. Craig Venter's ICBE keynote speech, “Genomics - from Medicine to Environment." Read the article and the Editorial by DeLisa and Haugh.
March 2007 - Congratulations to Lydia Contreras who was awarded 1st Place for her oral presentation at the 2007 Symposium of the Georgia Tech Black Graduate Student Association. Lydia's talk focused on her recent development of an intracellular ribosome display technology for engineering super-stable synthetic antibodies.
November 2007 - Congratulations Lydia Contreras who was selected as one of this year’s Hooey Fellowship Award winners. The Hooey Award is given annually to a Cornell Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering graduate student for outstanding independent research.
August 2007 - Congratulations to Rits Perez-Rodriguez who passed her A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on August 8, 2007.
December 2006 - Congratulations to Didi Waraho who passed her A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on December 14, 2006.
October 2006 - Congratulations to Lydia Contreras who passed her A exam (PhD candidacy exam) on October 5, 2006.
September 2006 - Dr. Hyung-Kwon Lim will join the DeLisa laboratory as a post-doctoral research associate beginning Fall 2006. Dr. Lim is currently a principal research scientist at Mogam Biotechnology Research Institute in Korea and holds a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from Seoul National University.
August 2006 - Dr. L. Lee will join the DeLisa laboratory as a post-doctoral research associate beginning Fall 2006. Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. from Cardiff University, UK in Molecular Biology and is an expert in bacterial genetics.
Summer 2006 - Congratulations to Adam Fisher and Matt Marrichi who successfully passed their A exams (PhD candidacy exam) on June 30, 2006 and August 29, 2006, respectively.
May 2006 - Congratulations to Gina Cremona who was awarded a Department of Homeland Security graduate fellowship. Gina is pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech beginning Fall 2006.
April 2006 - Congratulations to Denine King who won first place in the Undergraduates in Science and Technical Research poster competition at the 32nd annual National Society of Black Engineers conference held in Pittsburgh. Denine's research topic is "The exploration of intracellular antibody therapy for the treatment of traditionally challenging diseases."
February 2006 - Our protein folding paper is online at Protein Science. Learn more
July 2005 - Adam Fisher was awarded a Merck Award for Best Student Poster at the recent Biochemical Engineering XIV conference. Adam's work is focused on the development of genetic selection tools for expressing and engineering correctly folded proteins in bacteria.
January 2005 - Launch of the NYSTAR DNA-NY website, a journal of accomplishments of the James Watson Investigator Society. Learn more
September 2004 - The DeLisa lab was awarded a TD-700 fluorometer from the Turner BioSystems Fluorometer Grants Program. Learn more
May 2004 - Gina Cremona was awarded a Department of Homeland Security Scholarship award for her work on bacterial pathogenesis. She will continue to explore methods to counteract pathogenic bacteria by inhibiting their toxin transport machines.
March 2004 - Lydia Contreras was awarded a John C. and Jane F. Colman Graduate Fellowship from the College of Engineering and also a NSF IGERT Fellowship in nonlinear systems.
July 2003 - The DeLisa lab opens for business!
