Hal Alper

About

Professor Hal Alper is a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology. His educational background includes a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also completed postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute and Shire Human Genetic Therapies. His research focuses on applying synthetic biology techniques to develop more efficient strategies for producing industrially important and/or specialty chemicals. His work involves integrating metabolic engineering and synthetic biology to create sustainable solutions, including the valorization of waste resources for bioproduct production, bioremediation and upcycling of plastics, and the development of living materials with biological functionality. Professor Alper's research aims to engineer microbes and biological systems for industrial applications, emphasizing sustainability and environmental impact.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Biochemical engineering
• Computational biology
• Biology
• Stereochemistry
• Data science
• Materials science
• Organic chemistry

Selected publications

• Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization

  Nature · 2022 · 1112 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Applications, challenges, and needs for employing synthetic biology beyond the lab

  Nature Communications · 2021 · 260 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Synthetic biology holds great promise for addressing global needs. However, most current developments are not immediately translatable to 'outside-the-lab' scenarios that differ from controlled laboratory settings. Challenges include enabling long-term storage stability as well as operating in resource-limited and off-the-grid scenarios using autonomous function. Here we analyze recent advances in developing synthetic biological platforms for outside-the-lab scenarios with a focus on three major…

  DOI

• Compartmentalized microbes and co-cultures in hydrogels for on-demand bioproduction and preservation

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 225 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Most mono- and co-culture bioprocess applications rely on large-scale suspension fermentation technologies that are not easily portable, reusable, or suitable for on-demand production. Here, we describe a hydrogel system for harnessing the bioactivity of embedded microbes for on-demand small molecule and peptide production in microbial mono-culture and consortia. This platform bypasses the challenges of engineering a multi-organism consortia by utilizing a temperature-responsive, shear-thinning…

  DOI

• Using fungible biosensors to evolve improved alkaloid biosyntheses

  Nature Chemical Biology · 2022 · 89 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Recent advances in genetic engineering and chemical production in yeast species

  FEMS Yeast Research · 2025-01-01 · 21 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Yeasts have emerged as well-suited microbial cell factory for the sustainable production of biofuels, organic acids, terpenoids, and specialty chemicals. This ability is bolstered by advances in genetic engineering tools, including CRISPR-Cas systems and modular cloning in both conventional (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and non-conventional (Yarrowia lipolytica, Rhodotorula toruloides, Candida krusei) yeasts. Additionally, genome-scale metabolic models and machine learning approaches have accelerat…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Engineering Molecular Transport Proteins for Improved Xylose Uptake in Yeast

  NSF · $361k · 2012–2015

• Collaborative Research: Continuous Biomanufacturing using Decoupled Growth and Production Stages for Efficient Production and Recovery

  NSF · $313k · 2022–2025

• Collaborative Research: A New Yeast Biomanufacturing Platform for Making High-value Products from Oils and Fats

  NSF · $302k · 2020–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Gregory Stephanopoulos

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  26 shared

• Shuo‐Fu Yuan

  18 shared

• James M. Wagner

  The University of Texas at Austin

  17 shared

• Leqian Liu

  University of California, San Francisco

  16 shared

• Sun‐Mi Lee

  Korea Institute of Science and Technology

  15 shared

• Simon d’Oelsnitz

  The University of Texas at Austin

  13 shared

• Sierra M. Brooks

  The University of Texas at Austin

  13 shared

• Joel F. Moxley

  13 shared

Labs

• Alper LaboratoryPI

  Not provided

Education

• B.S., Chemical Engineering

  University of Maryland, College Park

  2002

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2006

Awards & honors

• American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow (…
• Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical…
• National Academy of Inventors fellow (2019)
• Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Engineering – TAMEST (201…
• Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Y…

Similar researchers at University of Texas at Austin

• George Georgiouh-107
• Keith Johnstonh-106
• James Chelikowskyh-87