Angad Mehta

Angad Mehta is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), affiliated with the Grainger College of Engineering. His research focuses on synthetic biology, photosynthetic engineering, and directed evolution, with a particular emphasis on creating artificial endosymbiotic systems and advancing genome engineering techniques. He explores topics such as non-canonical amino acid integration, metabolic pathway design, and evolutionary mechanisms in microbial systems.

His work spans foundational studies in bioenergetics and chloroplast function to applied areas like bioenergy production and antiviral strategies. Notable contributions include pioneering efforts in engineering synthetic yeast endosymbionts and developing virus-free directed evolution platforms using somatic hypermutation. He was awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship for his innovative contributions to synthetic biology.

Dr. Mehta’s research also addresses fundamental questions in cofactor biosynthesis, such as vitamin B12 and molybdopterin pathways, combining enzymology with synthetic tools. His lab integrates computational modeling, genetic engineering, and biochemical analysis to design novel biological systems with potential applications in healthcare and sustainable biotechnology.