• Assistant Professor
Dr. Chelsea Hu

Educational Background

  • Postdoctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology — 2022
  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Cornell University — 2018
  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles — 2013

Research Interests

  • The Hu lab develops engineering principles for the design and control of living systems. The lab expands the synthetic biology design space beyond genetic circuits to include cellular physiology, chassis selection, and interactions with surrounding environments and other biological and non-biological systems. By combining computational and experimental approaches, the group makes operating context an integral part of biological system design.

     Ongoing projects include:

    • Multiscale modeling of gene circuits, cellular physiology, and population dynamics
    • Parameter inference and system identification for biological systems
    • Closed-loop optogenetic control and biological–electronic interfaces
    • Non-model bacterial chassis domestication
    • Living therapeutics, including engineered probiotics and bacterial cancer therapies
    • Biomanufacturing in changing and resource-limited environments

Awards & Honors

  • NIH Trailblazer Award for Early-Stage Investigators, 2026
  • AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award, 2026

Selected Publications

  • Namboothiri, H. R.; Pandey, A. & Hu, C. Y.* (2026) Resolving Emergent Transient Oscillations in Gene Circuits with a Growth-Coupled Model. Sci Adv, 12 (6), eadz2310. DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.adz2310. Highlighted in Nature Chemical Engineering: Dursch, T (2026). Cells set the scale. DOI: 10.1038/s44286-026-00385-0
  • Namboothiri, H. R., Pochana, K., Jaiswal, B., Emami, A. & Hu, C. Y.* (2026). Closed-Loop Optogenetic Control in a Microplate Reader. ACS Synth. Biol. DOI:10.1021/acssynbio.6c00003
  • Hu, C. Y.*; McManus, J.; Aghlmand, F.; Mei, T.; Larsson, E.; Emami, A. & Murray, R. M. (2025). A Portable Arsenic Sensor Integrating Bacillus megaterium with CMOS Technology. ACS Synthetic Biology, 14 (5), 1615-1624. DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.4c00895.
  • Hu, C. Y.*, & Murray, R. M. (2022) Layered Feedback Control Overcomes Performance Trade-Off in Synthetic Biomolecular Networks. Nat Commun 13, 5393 (2022). DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-33058-6