Only 20 amino acids exist in the human body but hundreds have been found in nature. Expanding the library of non-natural amino acids opens up boundless opportunities for protein engineering. This project focuses on the synthesis and characterization of chiral molecules with an emphasis on tuning protein function, structure, or adding chemical functionality for protein labelling.

Cell-free protein expression is a versatile method to synthesize natural and non-natural proteins alike. Using a combination of engineered enzymes and novel non-canonical amino acids we explore and develop methods to efficiently incorporate them. These non-canonical amino acids will be used to generate novel therapeutics and materials.