Paul Jensen

Dr. Paul Jensen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He leads the Jensen Lab, a multidisciplinary team focused on combating infectious diseases through robotics, genomics, and computational approaches to advance microbiology and therapeutic design.

Education: Earned Bachelor’s degrees in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biology at Boston College.

Research Focus: The lab develops AI-driven systems to study unannotated genes (DARPA-funded), automates lab processes (NSF-funded), and optimizes microbial production (START grant). Recent projects include mechanistic models for gene function and high-throughput microbiology.

Grants & Funding: DARPA (2024 AI agents for gene function), NSF (2023 self-driving labs), NIGMS equipment grant (2023 BioTek Cytation 10), and Michigan Engineering START (2023 riboflavin production).

Advising & Team: Mentors graduate students (Vasu Rao, Ben David, Noelle Toong) and undergraduates (e.g., Austen Bloembergen). Recent student milestones include Rackham Fellowships, poster awards, and PhD candidacies.

Labs/Teams: The Jensen Lab operates at the intersection of engineering and life sciences, emphasizing automation and interdisciplinary collaboration.