Faculty DirectoryAshty Karim
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Contact
2145 Sheridan RoadTech
Evanston, IL 60208-3109
Email Ashty Karim
Website
Centers
Departments
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Education
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University
B.S. Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
B.S. Cell & Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests
The Karim Lab develops molecules, systems, and processes to enable global sustainability. Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, calling for urgent innovations in sustainability that are useful across geographies and economies and can operate at scale. Developing integrated molecular, systems, and process level capabilities, we bring a new vision of cell-free bioprocess engineering for climate change mitigation and adaptation. A core feature of our group is defining how we strategically use waste as substrates key to our energy future. Equipped with a holistic approach to biotechnology, our research is at the frontier of expanding the scope, scale, and impact of cell-free manufacturing.
Our research focuses on how we can capture and convert any pollutant, anywhere. Towards this goal, my lab operates across the molecular, system, and process scales to enable novel bioprocesses for climate change mitigation and adaptation. We are integrating synthetic biology and bioprocess engineering by mixing cell-free systems, metabolic engineering, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing—working together to address scientific and technological gaps in engineering biology for sustainability. We have projects in the lab focused on increasing our ability to biorecover resources from waste, biorecycle materials, and biocapture carbon. The ability to sequester and degrade pollutants through biological processes will significantly impact all industries, people, and the planet.
Selected Publications
- Rezvani, Ryan N.; Aw, Rochelle; Chan, Wei; Satish, Krishnathreya; Chen, Han; Lavy, Adi; Rimal, Swechha; Patel, Divyesh A.; Rao, Govind; Swartz, James R.; DeLisa, Matthew P.; Kvam, Erik; Karim, Ashty S.; Krüger, Antje; Kightlinger, Weston; Jewett, Michael C., Scalable Cell-Free Production of Active T7 RNA Polymerase, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2025).
- Brown, Dylan M.; Phillips, Daniel A.; Garcia, David C.; Arce, Anibal; Lucci, Tyler; Davies, John P.; Mangini, Jacob T.; Rhea, Katherine A.; Bernhards, Casey B.; Biondo, John R.; Blum, Steven M.; Cole, Stephanie D.; Lee, Jennifer A.; Lee, Marilyn S.; McDonald, Nathan D.; Wang, Brenda; Perdue, Dale L.; Bower, Xavier S.; Thavarajah, Walter; Karim, Ashty S.; Lux, Matthew W.; Jewett, Michael C.; Miklos, Aleksandr E.; Lucks, Julius B., Semiautomated Production of Cell-Free Biosensors, ACS synthetic biology (2025).
- Lay, Caleb G.; Burks, Gabriel R.; Li, Zheng; Barrick, Jeffrey E.; Schroeder, Charles M.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C., Cell-Free Expression of Soluble Leafhopper Proteins from Brochosomes, ACS synthetic biology (2025).
- Hunt, Andrew C.; Rasor, Blake J.; Seki, Kosuke; Ekas, Holly M.; Warfel, Katherine F.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C., Cell-Free Gene Expression, Chemical Reviews (2025).
- Karim, Ashty Stephen; Brown, Dylan M.; Archuleta, Chloé M.; Grannan, Sharisse; Aristilde, Ludmilla; Goyal, Yogesh; Leonard, Joshua N; Mangan, Niall M.; Prindle, Arthur; Rocklin, Gabriel J.; Tyo, Keith J.; Zoloth, Laurie S; Jewett, Michael Christopher; Calkins, Susanna C; Kamat, Neha P.; Tullman-Ercek, Danielle; Lucks, Julius B., Deconstructing synthetic biology across scales, Nature communications (2024).
- Ekas, Holly M.; Wang, Brenda; Silverman, Adam D.; Lucks, Julius B.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C., An Automated Cell-Free Workflow for Transcription Factor Engineering, ACS synthetic biology (2024).
- Ekas, Holly M.; Wang, Brenda; Silverman, Adam D.; Lucks, Julius B.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael C., Engineering a PbrR-Based Biosensor for Cell-Free Detection of Lead at the Legal Limit, ACS synthetic biology (2024).
- Willi, Jessica A.; Karim, Ashty S.; Jewett, Michael Christopher, Cell-Free Translation Quantification via a Fluorescent Minihelix, ACS synthetic biology (2024).