Expert Profile



Dr Kate Adamala
Position(s) Polymath Fellow, Synthetic Biology, at the GCSP – Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

Kate Adamala is McKnight Land Grant Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota. Her research aims at understanding chemical principles of biology, using artificial cells to create new tools for bioengineering, drug development, and foundational research. Her research interests span questions from the origin and earliest evolution of life, using synthetic biology to colonize space, to the future of biotechnology and medicine. Lab info: www.protobiology.org.
Kate is a co-founder and coordinator of the Build-a-Cell, the international synthetic cell engineering community. 
Kate has worked on biosafety and biosecurity implications of emerging synthetic biology technologies, including horizon scanning and safeguard analysis. Her work particularly focuses on synthetic cell engineering and genetic code reprogramming, investigating implications of reprogramming living organisms beyond the bounds of the natural biology.