Andrew Ellington

Andrew Ellington is Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, holding the Wilson M. and Kathryn Fraser Research Professorship in Biochemistry. His pioneering research in synthetic biology develops novel organisms through translation apparatus engineering and computational nucleic acid design. Ellington directs the university's Gene Synthesis Facility.

Research focuses on engineering genetic codes, developing DNA-based computational circuits, and creating modular cellular operating systems. Applications span diagnostics, therapeutics, and bio-computation, with recent work integrating machine learning for enzyme engineering and biomaterial design.

Publications demonstrate foundational contributions to aptamer technology and synthetic biology, with recent advances in enzyme engineering for environmental applications and DNA circuit design. Research consistently bridges computational and experimental approaches.

Ellington leads projects developing point-of-care diagnostics using isothermal amplification and DNA computation, and directs research on genetic code expansion for novel protein functions.