Gözde S. Demirer

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering (2022)

Gözde was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey and received her B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Koc University in 2015. Gözde completed her Chemical Engineering Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with Prof. Markita Landry in 2020. During her Ph.D. studies, she developed nanotechnologies for plant genetic engineering. For her postdoctoral work, Gözde joined Prof. Siobhan Brady's lab at UC Davis, where she studied nutrient use efficiency of tomato and developed high-throughput functional genomics tools to study transcriptional regulation in crops.

Mark G. Legendre

Chemical Engineering Graduate Student (2021)

Mark was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and earned his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame in 2021. During his time at UND, Mark developed supramolecular surface treatments for biomedical materials. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering at Caltech as a member of the Demirer Lab where he is primarily focused on in planta protein delivery strategies for plant genetic engineering and developmental regulation. In his free time, Mark enjoys working out, playing and listening to music, and fly fishing.

Yunqing Wang

Bioengineering Graduate Student (2021)

Yunqing was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, and earned her B.S. in Biomedical Sciences at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021. During her undergrad, Yunqing participated in iGEM and developed a DNA detection toolbox based on CRISPR-Cas12a. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering at Caltech as a member of the Demirer lab. She is passionate about applying synthetic biology techniques to plant engineering. Outside the lab, Yunqing enjoys hiking and photography, and is getting in the habit of working out and rock climbing.

Aya Nakayama

Research Technician

Aya was born in Japan, and earned her B.S. in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley in 2021. During her undergraduate studies at Berkeley, she developed interests in biomaterials, nanotechnology, and delivery methods into biological systems. Since graduating, she has contributed to multiple projects at the Terasaki Institute as an intern. In the Demirer lab, she is excited to learn engineered nano delivery systems and synthetic biology for plants Outside the lab, she enjoys hiking, exercising (boxercising), golfing, going to art galleries and music concerts. Also, Aya is a big foodie who loves to explore different types of foods.

Eugene Li

Chemical Engineering Graduate Student (2022)

Eugene was born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During his undergrad, Eugene worked with Prof. Mukherjee to develop biomolecular MRI reporters. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at Caltech as a member of the Demirer Lab. His research focuses on developing engineered living materials to achieve controlled release of agrochemicals in the rhizosphere. In his free time, Eugene enjoys playing sports and watching movies.

Jesus M. Galeana

Chemical Biology Graduate Student (2022)

Jesus is a California native, born and raised Riverside, CA. He received his B.S. degrees from the University of California, Irvine in Chemistry and another in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2021. While in Irvine he conducted research under the advisement of Prof. Jenny Y. Yang, where spearheaded research for the electrochemical capture and release of carbon dioxide. He is now a first year graduate student pursuing his PhD. degree in Chemical Biology (Chemistry) at Caltech as a member of the Demirer Lab where he focuses on the development of new carbon based nanoparticles for the delivery of bio-macromolecules into plants for genetic engineering and developmental regulation. Jesus likes to cook, play boardgames, and watch movies in his spare time. He never says no to a good game of CATAN.