Xiaoxia Lin

Xiaoxia (Nina) Lin is a Professor and Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on microbial co-cultivation, synthetic biology, and biotechnology applications. She leads the Lin Lab, which develops microdroplet-based technologies for high-throughput analysis of microbial communities. Notable areas of interest include engineering synthetic microbial consortia for biofuel production, optimizing metabolic pathways, and elucidating microbial interactions in complex environments.

Her work integrates microfluidic droplet systems with genomic and omics tools to study vaginal microbiota, algal biofuel systems, and microbial 'dark matter.' Recent projects emphasize temperature-programmable microbial communities and sustainable biochemical production through modular photosynthetic consortia.

Key contributions include methodologies for optimized gene expression, high-resolution mapping of microbial interactions, and applications of droplet-enabled co-cultivation in ecological and industrial contexts. The Lin Lab’s innovations bridge synthetic biology, environmental engineering, and systems biology to address challenges in sustainable biotechnology.