Team

We are an interdisciplinary team of biomedical researchers with expertise in bioengineering, cellular and molecular biology, synthetic biology, biochemistry, genetics, genomics, computational biology, immunology, virology, and pharmacology. Our work is driven by a commitment to rigorous science, collaborative research, and the dedicated training of future innovators and leaders.

Principal Investigator

• Isaac Hilton, PhD

  About Isaac ›

  Associate Professor, Bioengineering
  Associate Professor, BioSciences
  Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology Ph.D. Program
  Rice Synthetic Biology Institute
  CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research

  

  

  

  Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University (2013-2017)

  Ph.D., Genetics and Molecular Biology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, (2013)

  B.S., Biological Sciences, University of Missouri Columbia (2004)

Postdoctoral Researchers and Staff

• Mario Escobar, PhD

  Ph.D. Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, 2022

  American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow

  B.S. Biology, Brigham Young University – Idaho, 2018

• Sandy Luong

  B.A. Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology, Drake University, 2021

Graduate Students

• Daniel Brenner

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  Rice/MD Anderson NCI Cancer Nanotechnology T32 Fellow

  B.S. Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 2019

• Sunghwan Kim

  

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  M.S. International Agricultural Technology, Seoul National University, 2019

  B.S. Life Science, Hanyang University, 2017

  B.S. Business Administration, Hanyang University, 2017

• Guy Bedford

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program Awardee

  *Co-advised with Dr. Michael Diehl (Rice Bioengineering)

  B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, 2021

• Daniel Reed

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program Awardee

  B.S. Biochemistry and Microbiology, Oklahoma State University, 2022

• Amaury F. Bittar Yepes

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  Fulbright–MinCiencias Doctoral Scholar

  M.Sc, Biomedical Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, 2022

  B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, 2021

  B.S., Microbiology, Universidad de los Andes, 2021
• Alex Ma

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  B.S. Bioengineering, Minor in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, 2023
• Selvalakshmi (Selva) Selvaraj Anand

  Department: Rice Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology (SSPB)

  M.S. Diagnostic Genetics and Genomics – Molecular Biology,  MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023

  B.Tech. Genetic Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, 2020

• RJ Jiao

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 2021

  B.S., Computer Science, Duke University, 2021

• Sangrok (Rocky) Han

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  *Co-advised with Dr. Michael Diehl (Rice Bioengineering)

  M.S. Bioengineering, Hanyang University, 2021

  B.S. Bioengineering, Hanyang University, 2016

• Kat Rosner

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  *Co-advised with Dr. Michael Diehl (Rice Bioengineering)

  B.S. Biosciences, Concentration in Integrative Biology, Rice University, 2024

• Rachel Yu

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  B.S., Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2023

• Vienna Huang

  Department: Rice Bioengineering

  B.S., Bioengineering, Minor in Data Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2025

Undergraduate Students

• Mira Srinivasa

  Department: Rice Bioengineering (B.S.)
• Maria Contreras

  Department: Rice Bioengineering (B.S.)
• Ashwika Agrawal

  Department: Rice Bioengineering (B.S.)
• Kevin Gong

  Department: Rice Bioengineering (B.S.)
• Emily Dodge

  Department: Rice Biochemistry and Cell Biology (B.S.) and Philosophy (B.S.)
• Blake Brown

  Department: Rice Bioengineering (B.S.)
• Ivy Gautam

  Department: Rice Neuroscience (B.S.)
• Derek Yang

  Department: Rice Biochemistry and Cell Biology (B.S.) and Social Policy Analysis (B.A.)
• Sherry Jin

  Department: Rice Biochemistry and Cell Biology (B.S.)
• Nozomi Onishi

  Department: Rice University Smalley-Curl Institute Tomodachi Scholar Program