Keith Keitz

Dr. Keith Keitz serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and holds a Faculty Investigator position in IRG 1.

He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Herbert Newby McCoy Award for best dissertation thesis. Prior to his current appointment, he completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco.

His research program—the Keitz Group—integrates synthetic chemistry and synthetic biology to develop synthetic constructs that regulate biological processes. Key focus areas include neurodegeneration mechanisms, gene regulation systems, biomaterials synthesis, and expanding cellular metabolism through extracellular electron transfer.

His notable recognition includes:

• Herbert Newby McCoy Award for best dissertation thesis

Dr. Keitz leads an active research laboratory dedicated to engineering novel chemical-biological interfaces for controlling cellular functions, with emphasis on metabolic expansion via electron transfer pathways.