Keren Lasker

Keren Lasker, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Scripps Research (Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology) with joint appointments in Immunology & Microbiology and the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on membraneless organelles (MLOs) in bacteria, leveraging phase separation principles to engineer synthetic MLOs in higher organisms for therapeutic and biotechnological applications.

Education: PhD in Computer Science (Tel-Aviv University, 2012), M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Computer Science/Mathematics (Tel-Aviv University, 2006/2000).

Research Interests: Biomolecular condensates, phase separation dynamics, bacterial cell polarity, synthetic MLO engineering, and applications in human disease. Her lab combines high-resolution imaging, genetics, and computational modeling to study PopZ protein-driven condensates in α-proteobacteria and their synthetic uses in human systems.

Notable Awards: 2023 Faculty Scholar Program (Baxter Foundation), 2013 EMBO Fellowship, 2012 Best Paper Award (3DSig), and multiple early-career recognitions from Tel Aviv University and the Charles Clore Foundation.

Grants: Supported by the Baxter Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and NIH grants for MLO research.

Labs/Teams: Lasker Lab at Scripps Research focuses on structural biology and synthetic biology of MLOs, collaborating with institutions like Stanford, Caltech, and the University of California.