Caleb Bashor

Caleb Bashor is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering & Biosciences at Rice University, affiliated with the Bashor Lab. His research focuses on synthetic biology, engineering synthetic regulatory circuits in mammalian cells to develop advanced cell-based therapeutics. He holds a PhD in Biophysics from UCSF (2010) and completed postdoctoral training at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (2011–2017).

Key research areas include reprogramming cellular sense-and-response systems, high-throughput genetic circuit design, and applying synthetic biology to immunoengineering and regenerative medicine. His lab employs cutting-edge techniques like microfluidics, CRISPR-based engineering, and machine learning to accelerate synthetic biology advancements.

Notable contributions include foundational work on eukaryotic synthetic regulatory systems, cooperative genetic circuit design, and the development of the eVOLVER platform for automated cell culture experiments. His articles highlight innovations in mammalian signaling networks, therapeutic gene delivery, and spatiotemporal signaling analysis.

Recent work emphasizes translating synthetic biology into clinical applications, such as engineered immune cells for cancer therapy and stem cell reprogramming. The lab collaborates widely, addressing challenges in genetic circuit stability, high-throughput screening, and therapeutic efficacy.