About Us
Principal Investigator
Claudia Schmidt-Dannert
schmi232@umn.edu
Dr. Claudia Schmidt-Dannert is a Distinguished McKnight Professor and Kirkwood Chair of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics. She is also the Director of the BioTechnology Institute and the Founding Director of the Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation Center at the University of Minnesota.
She completed her B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry and Genetics at the TU Braunschweig and performed her PhD research at the National Research Center for Biotechnology (GBF, now Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) in Braunschweig (1994). She then moved to the University of Stuttgart, and after a brief postdoctoral time, led he Molecular Biotechnology Group in the Institute of Technical Biochemistry as “Habilitant”. In 1998, she received a habilitation-fellowship from the German Science Foundation for her research proposal on in vitro pathway evolution and with this project, joined 2018 Chemistry Nobel Laureate Prof. Frances Arnold’s group at the California Institute of Technology to carry out her research on “molecular breeding of pathways” using carotenoid biosynthesis as a model system. In 2000, she joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota.
Lab Members
Francois Gaascht
fgaascht@umn.edu
Francois obtained his BSc and MSc at the University of Strasbourg (France) and completed his PhD at the Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire du Cancer (Luxembourg) in the framework of the European RedCat Project. As Marie Curie Fellow, his research project focused on the discovery and the elucidation of the mode of action of several natural and natural-based products as anticancer drugs. After acquisition of new skills in natural products isolation and structure elucidation at the Fundacíon MEDINA (Granada, Spain), he joined the Schmidt-Dannert lab in October 2016 as Postdoctoral Research Associate
Eui-Sang Cho
Postdoc
choe@umn.edu
Eui-Sang joined the Schmidt-Dannert Lab as postdoc in January of 2024. He obtained his PhD. in the Divisions of Bioengineering at Incheon National University (Korea). His research focuses in the engineering of environmentally safe synthetic biofilm consortia for resource recovery and biodegradation. He is also interested producing novel metabolites through combinatorial biosynthesis and the optimization of downstream processes, including fermentation conditions.
Sunyoung Kang
kang0326@umn.edu
Sun-young Kang (SUN) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate who joined the Schmidt-Dannert lab in March 2018. She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacy at the Chungbuk National University (Korea). Also, she worked as a graduate research assistant at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (Korea). Her research focuses on increasing the secretion of scaffold protein fabricated by bacterial host. She is also interested in a synthetic biology approach for optimizing a biological system for the biosynthesis of natural products.
Eliana Pena
pena0096@umn.edu
Eliana Pena is a graduate student in the BMBB program. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry at Texas State University and joined the Schmidt-Dannert lab in March 2021. Her research interests are in engineering and developing novel in-vitro biocatalytic strategies for the production of natural products and therapeutic agents. In her free time, Eliana enjoys playing D&D, hiking, rock climbing, identifying plants and mushrooms in nature, cooking, and promoting and advocating for diversity in STEM.
Moonseok Kang
kang0542@umn.edu
Moonseok completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the Seoul National University of Science and Technology and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in the Aksan lab. In January 2024, he set up his lab bench the Schmidt-Dannert lab to conduct research on a collaborative project between the Schmidt-Dannert, Aksan and Wacket Labs. His research focuses on developing environmentally safe synthetic biofilms and bioreactors for applications in biomining and biodegradation. He is particularly interested in synthesizing, characterizing, and modeling novel hybrid and engineered living materials for these applicatiSTEM.
Lab Alumni
The Schmidt-Dannert lab has developed a considerable network of alumni all over the world with employment in industry and academica. Students and postdoctoral scholars readily find positions in the biotechnology industry, others have obtained faculty positions. Many alumni are now in senior and leadership position at companies and several are tenure-track or tenured faculty members.
Graduate Students
Benjamin Hanson | MS, BMBB | 2015-18 | Manufacturing Associate, Moderna, MA |
Christopher Flynn | PhD, BMBB | 2011-16 | Staff Scientist, Ecolab, MN |
Stephen Michel | MS, MicE | 2013-15 | Bioinformatician, U of M Clinics |
Sarah Bloch | PhD, BMBB | 2009-14 | Patent Agent at Morrison & Foerster LLP |
Grayson Wawrzyn | PhD, BMBB | 2009-13 | Account Executive, Bruker Cellular Analysis |
Ilya Tikh | PhD, BMBB | 2008-13 | Senior Principal Scientist – Synthetic and Molecular Biology at Pfizer |
Erik Holtzapple | PhD, BMBB | 2003-08 | Director of Research, Provenance Bio, San Diego |
Sean Agger | PhD, BMBB | 2003-08 | Director Clinical Lab, Gunderson Healthcare System, La Crosse, WI |
Erin Marasco | PhD, BMBB | 2002-07 | Global Biology Lead, Cargill, Twin Cities |
Kevin Watts | PhD, BMBB | 2002-06 | Product Innovation Director, Cargill, Twin Cities |
Jessica Williams | MS, MicE | 2004-06 | Senior Scientist, Center for Drug Design, U of M |
Anuj Bhartija | MS, MicE | 2001-03 | Director & Founder, Carbochon, Mumbai, India |
Postdoctoral Scholars
| Ruijie Zhang | Postdoc | 2019-24 | Research Associate, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute |
| Min-Ju Seo | Postdoc | 2019-21 | TBA |
| Anaya Pokhrel | Postdoc | 2019-22 | Senior Scientist, IFF Biotechnology |
| Sara Bratsch | Postdoc | 2019-21 | Plant Pathologist, Minnesota State Department |
| Maureen Quin | Research Assistant Prof. | 2010-19 | Staff Scientist, Beckman Coulter, MN |
| Seung-Oh Seo | Postdoc | 2017-19 | Assistant Prof., Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Korea |
| Guoqiang Zhang | Postdoc | 2015-18 | Associate Prof., Jiangnan University, China |
| Hui Chen | Postdoc | 2017-18 | Postdoc, University of Boulder, CO |
| Sarah Perdue | Postdoc | 2013-15 | Director of Communications, Dept. Physics, UW Madison |
| Alexander Kolb | Postdoc | 2013-15 | Senior Scientist, Douglas Scientific, MN |
| James Ellinger | Postdoc | 2012-14 | Lecturer, Nippon Medical School |
| Mark Held | Postdoc | 2011-14 | Director Strain Engineering, Air Protein, Berkeley, CA |
| Soo-Jin Yeom | Postdoc | 2010-12 | Professor, Chonnam National University, South Korea |
| David Babson | Postdoc | 2010-12 | Executive Vice President, Climate & Energy, XPRIZE, Los Angeles, CA |
| Swati Choudhary | Research Associate | 2009-12 | Program Manager, DARPA |
| Jacob Vick | Postdoc | 2008-11 | Senior Scientist III, Conagen, MA |
| Poonam Srivastava | Postdoc | 2010-11 | Scientist, Modern Meadow, New Jersey |
| Sreedhar Reddy | Postdoc | 2009-10 | Scientist, Merck, India |
| Fernando Lopez-Gallego | Postdoc | 2007-10 | Professor, Biocatalysis, CIC biomaGUNE, Spain |
| Ethan Johnson | Research Associate | 2005-10 | Passed away in a hit-and-run car accident |
| Alexander Pisarchik | Postdoc | 2004-07 | Program Director, Alcamena Stem Cell Therapeutics, MD |
| Pyung Cheon Lee | Research Associate | 2001-07 | Professor, Molecular Synthetic Biology Lab, Ajou University, Seoul, Korea |
| Benjamin Mijts | Postdoc | 2002-06 | Senior Director, Inscripta, San Francisco |
| Seok Joon Kwon | Postdoc | 2002-04 | Senior Research Scientist, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY |
| Ralf Petri | Postdoc | 2002-04 | Scientific Coordinator, Max-Planck Institute for Aging, Cologne, Germany |
| Arjo De Beoer | Postdoc | 2001-03 | Senior Scientist Life Science Fujifilm manufacturing, Netherlands |
| Priscilla Dombek | Postdoc | 2001-03 | K-12 Teacher |
| Abu Zafar Momen | 2000-02 | Scientist, RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan |