Dr. Ahmed Badran to Give Keynote Talk at 33rd Annual UBRP Conference
Dr. Ahmed Badran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute
We are excited to welcome Beckman Scholar and UBRP alumnus Dr. Ahmed Badran as the keynote speaker for the 33rd Annual UBRP Conference to be held on Saturday, January 22, 2022! Dr. Badran conducted research under the guidance of Dr. Indraneel Ghosh from 2007-2010, and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute.
Dr. Badran’s work aims to probe and engineer the most fundamental biomolecules and genetic circuits in living cells, and to develop next generation solutions to long-standing global issues in healthcare and climate change. Badran has earned several distinctions for his research, including the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Merit Fellowship, and the National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award.
Dr. Badran earned his B.Sc. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, as well as Molecular & Cellular Biology, from the University of Arizona. Subsequently, he earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Harvard University under the guidance of Prof. David R. Liu, leading the development and application of rapid methods for continuous directed evolution. Following that, he was a Principal Investigator and Fellow of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where his lab developed new technologies to reprogram protein translation.
The Badran Lab has developed strategies for efficient mutagenesis in bacteria that have provided unprecedented access to new functions for proteins and catalytic RNAs. More broadly, Badran has led the development and application of rapid methods for continuous directed evolution that overcome bioinsecticide resistance, provide insight in antiviral resistance, and improve specificity of genome editing reagents. Recently, the lab developed new technologies for genetic code expansion approaches. These contributions significantly improved the effectiveness and fidelity of non-canonical amino acid mutagenesis in living cells. These strategies are now widely applied across the life sciences.
We invite you to join us for Dr. Badran’s keynote talk and to learn about the amazing research that UBRP students are conducting at the 33rd Annual UBRP Conference to be held on Saturday, January 22, 2022 from 8:30am to 12:00pm in person on the University of Arizona main campus in Tucson. For event details, please visit this page. The event is free and open to all interested.