معرفی
Mattheos Koffas holds the Dorothy and Fred Chau ʼ71 Career Development Constellation Professorship in Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He earned his B.S. from the National Technical University of Athens (1994) and Ph.D. from MIT (2000). His research focuses on metabolic engineering, biocatalysis, and sustainable bioproduction, with notable work on microbial engineering for natural product synthesis (e.g., amino acids, polyphenols) and biopolymer production. He has pioneered methods for upcycling plastic waste into recombinant proteins and developed animal-free chondroitin sulfate production systems. His lab integrates synthetic biology, AI-enhanced biomanufacturing, and microbial coculture strategies.
Research highlights include engineering E. coli for N-glycolyl chondroitin synthesis, optimizing metabolic pathways via RNA biosensors, and enhancing β-carotene production in yeast through lipid droplet regulation. His work spans industrial partnerships with Evonik and Firstwave Technologies, federal grants from NIH/ARPA-E/NSF, and over 150 peer-reviewed publications. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Metabolic Engineering Communications and Associate Editor of Biotechnology Advances.
