Christopher V Rao

Christopher V. Rao is the Ray and Beverly Mentzer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He leads the Rao Lab, which focuses on synthetic and systems biology, integrating genetic engineering and computational modeling to study microbial physiology, biofuel production, and bioprocessing.

Education:

• B.S., Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (1994)
• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000)
• Postdoctoral Research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UC Berkeley (2000–2004)

Research Interests: Systems biology, metabolic engineering, microbial chemotaxis, biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass, plastic biodegradation, and microbial food systems. The lab engineers organisms like Yarrowia lipolytica and Rhodosporidium toruloides for lipid and biofuel production, and explores methane conversion and sustainable food technologies.

Recent Trends in Articles: Focus on integrating plant-microbial oil processing, designing hybrid bioinorganic systems for food production, and optimizing metabolic pathways in oleaginous yeasts. Work spans biorefinery design, stress response mechanisms in microbes, and strain engineering for industrial applications.

Awards:

• Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2014)
• Robert W. Schaefer Scholar (2012–present)
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2007)

Advising & Grants: Supervises graduate students and postdocs in metabolic engineering, bioprocessing, and systems biology. Active in funding initiatives from the Department of Energy and Shell. Recent lab additions include Fakhraddin Eminli (2023) and Afia Subhani (2023).

Labs & Teams: The Rao Lab operates a wet lab with biochemical facilities and computational resources. Collaborations include work with the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) and Shell’s biomanufacturing initiatives.