Category: people

Grace graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2026 with a B.S. in Microbiology. She joined the Adamala Lab in 2025, where her research focuses on designing and improving methods for synthetic cell engineering. 

Nick is a 3rd year undergraduate student studying biology in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He joined this research lab this summer.
Outside of lab and school he is a member of the trumpet section in the University of Minnesota Marching Band

Paul is an MD/PhD student interested in ribosomes, tRNA, and microbiology. He graduated from Carleton College in 2022, working on C. elegans neuronal development with Jennifer Ross-Wolff, and spent 2 years working on functional genomics and primary cilia with David Breslow.

Outside of the lab he likes camping, adventure sports, and hanging out with his dog Moose. 

Drew Guinness is a researcher in the Adamala lab and an instructor of Biology at Normandale Community College. He received his B.S. in Biology and Insect Science from Iowa State University and his M.S. from the University of Notre Dame in Biological Sciences. Prior to joining the lab, he served as an associate professor of Biology and a co-chair of the Biotechnology program at Des Moines Area Community College.
His research experience includes the development of genetic technologies in insects for both basic biological and public health applications. Currently, he works to understand the processes that drive ribosome assembly. His research interests include early life and evolution, mathematical modeling of biological systems, and quantitative STEM education.
Contact: guinness@umn.edu

Basak received her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Middle East Technical University and her M.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Koc University in Turkiye. She joined the Adamala Lab in 2024 as a PhD student, where she researches the origins of life by engineering self-sustaining synthetic cells through the development of genetically encoded amino acid and energy metabolism pathways. She also develops synthetic cell-based sensors for rare earth element detection, with potential applications in astrobiology.

Outside the lab, Basak enjoys working out, ice skating, playing tennis, and taking walks with her cat, Mia.

David got his B.S. and M.Engr in biological engineering from the University of Idaho in 2024. He joined the Adamala lab in 2026, studying genetic code expansion and biocatalytic applications of unnatural amino acids. He also has interests in modeling synthetic cells and cell-free translation systems.
Outside of the lab he spends his time maintaining open source software packages, playing board games, and tinkering with old video game consoles.

Adrianna graduated from Lawrence University in 2023 with a degree in Biochemistry. While at Lawrence University, in the lab of Dr. Kelly Culhane she studied G-couple protein receptors. Adrianna joined the Adamala lab as a graduate student in 2024. In the Adamala lab, she works with unnatural nucleic acid building blocks and cell free protein synthesis systems, including for astropharmacy applications. Outside of the lab, Adrianna enjoys hiking, biking, reading, and knitting.

Josh completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Montana State University before joining the Adamala-Engelhart lab in 2022. During his undergraduate years, he worked in Dr. Susy Kohout’s lab on voltage sensing phosphatases.
Josh is interested in noncanonical amino acid incorporation, flexizymes, ribosomes, organic synthesis, and cell free protein expression.
He fills his free time with mountains and mimolette, hiking, havarti, and horses, baking, brie, and birding.

Elisabeth Edgerton graduated from UW-Madison in 2012 with a B.S. in Animal Science. She has previously worked for UMN Research Animal Resources and the UMN Veterinary Diagnostic Lab on the St. Paul campus. She is currently working on a computational project modeling the PURE system in synthetic cells.

In her free time, Elisabeth enjoys traveling, computer games, starting various crafting projects, and spending time with her guinea pigs, Piglet and Pooh.

Contact:  edge0033@umn.edu

Evan is a postdoc evolving the ribosome and tRNAs to enable robust translation of noncanonical amino acids.

Contact:  kalb0034@umn.edu