About Us

We are interested in synthetic biology. This is an exciting discipline at the interface of biological and engineering sciences. The objective is to build new, useful biological circuits, devices and systems. In our group, we combine genetic engineering experiments and theoretical models of gene networks to design bio-logical AND gates, toggle switches and protein devices in bacteria.

We place emphasis on the development of multiscale models for synthetic biology. We use statistical mechanics to develop multiscale models of biomolecular interactions. With these we can design computer-aided synthetic biosystems. We are making available the Synthetic Biology Software Suite, available for Windows, Mac and Linux machines (http://synbioss.sourceforge.net/)

With sophisticated simulation and optimization algorithms, we are figuring out how to teach bacteria new tricks, to respond to our signals on demand. We are also experimenting with novel gene circuits with applications in biofuels, gene therapies and biosensing.

We are also interested in the molecular aspects of protein functionality, protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions. The goal is the design of synthetic biopharmaceutical products, such as antimicrobial peptides.

Prof. Kaznessis also directs the University of Minnesota Bioinformatics Summer Institute, a summer undergraduate education program funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. For more information go to www.bsi.umn.edu.