Dave Dingal

Dr. Dave Dingal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), affiliated with the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. His research focuses on the intersection of molecular biology, cell and developmental biology, and synthetic biology, particularly in understanding signaling protein assembly and processing during embryonic development and in the brain. He leads the Dingal Lab, which engineers molecular tools to control cellular signaling pathways.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 2014
• B.Eng. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2009

Research Interests: Dr. Dingal’s work explores cell biophysics, synthetic biology, and the molecular mechanisms underlying developmental signaling. His lab investigates how signaling proteins like Vg1 and TGF-β are regulated during embryo development, using zebrafish as a vertebrate model. He also develops CRISPR-based tools for gene regulation and applies mechanobiology principles to study stem cell differentiation.

Awards:

• Cancer Research Institute-Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship (for cancer immunotherapy and CRISPR-based genome regulation work at Stanford University)

Lab and Collaborations: His lab integrates molecular genetics, engineering, and synthetic biology to design novel signaling systems. Current openings are available for students and researchers to contribute to this emerging field. The lab’s work has been published in top journals like Nature Materials and Nature Communications.