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Photo of Alper, Hal

halper@che.utexas.edu
512-471-4417
Office Location: CPE 5.408

Hal Alper

Professor

Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #1

Research Group Website

Educational qualifications

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (2006-2008)
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Shire Human Genetic Therapies (2007-2008)
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology  (2006)
B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park (2002)

Courses Taught

CHE 317 Introduction to Chemical Engineering Analysis
CHE 372 Chemical Reactor Analysis and Design
CHE 379/384 Biochemical, Cellular, and Metabolic Engineering: Principles and Practices
UGS 302 Freshman Signature Course: Engineering Biology: Prospects for biofuels to biomedicine
CHE 185 Graduate Student Seminar Series

Focus

Biotechnology, Metabolic and Cellular Engineering, Biofuels, Synthetic Biology, and Systems Biology.

Research

The Alper Lab rewires cellular metabolism to produce next-generation biochemicals, polymer precursors, fuels, and pharmaceuticals. In doing so, we are addressing global challenges including sustainability, human health, circular bio-economies, and clean energy/energy security. We rewire cells by uniquely merging the areas of synthetic biology, directed evolution, and pathway engineering. To complement these efforts, we have developed many synthetic genetic toolkits, high-throughput screening techniques, evolution schemes, and culturing platforms. Our mission is to enable advanced biomanufacturing using rewired host organisms.

Awards & Honors

  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2024
  • Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering (AIChE), 2023
  • Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2019
  • Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Engineering, 2019
  • AIChE Allan P. Colburn Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Institute, 2018
  • College of Fellows, The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2018
  • Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Young Investigator Award, 2015
  • Jay Bailey Young Investigator Award in Metabolic Engineering, 2014
  • Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2014
  • Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang Award, 2013
  • Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (selected by the UT System), 2012
  • Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 2011
  • DuPont Young Professor Award, 2010
  • Invited Participant, National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference, Synthetic Biology: Building on Nature’s Inspiration, 2009
  • Protégé, The 6th Annual Conference of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas-attendance based on nomination by National Academy Member, 2009
  • Texas Exes Teaching Award, 2008
  • Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, 2008
  • Merck Student/Young Investigator Poster Award for Best Poster (Metabolic Engineering Conference), 2004

Selected Publications

  • Sierra Brooks, Celeste Marsan, Kevin Reed, Shuo-Fu Yuan, Dustin-Dat Nguyen, Adit Trivedi, Gokce Altin-Yavuzarslan, Nathan Ballinger, Alshakim Nelson, and Hal Alper, A tripartite microbial co-culture system for de novo biosynthesis of diverse plant phenylpropanoids, Nature Communications, 14, 4448 (2023), July 2023.
  • Hongyuan Lu, Daniel Diaz, Natalie Czarnecki, Congzhi Zhu, Wantae Kim, Raghav Shroff, Daniel Acosta, Brad Alexander, Hannah Cole, Yan Jessie Zhang, Nathaniel Lynd, Andrew Ellington, and Hal Alper, 2022, Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization, Nature, 604, 662–667, April 2022.
  • Emily Bowman, James Wagner, Shuo-Fu Yuan, Matt Deaner, Claire Palmer, Simon D’Oelsnitz, Lauren Cordova, Xin Li, Frank F. Craig and Hal Alper, Sorting for secreted molecule production using a biosensor-in-microdroplet approach, PNAS, 118 (36) e2106818118, September 2021.
  • Kelly Markham, Claire Palmer, Malgorzata Chwatko, James Wagner, Clare Murray, Sofia Vazquez, Arvind Swaminathan, Ishani Chakravarty, Nathaniel Lynd, and Hal Alper, Rewiring Yarrowia lipolytica toward triacetic acid lactone for novel materials generation, PNAS, 115 (9) 2096-2101, February 2018.
  • Joseph Abatemarco, Maen Sarhan, James M. Wagner, Jyun-Liang Lin, Leqian Liu, Wafa Hassouneh, Shuo-Fu Yuan, Hal S. Alper, and Adam R. Abate, RNA-Aptamer-In-Droplet (RAPID) High-Throughput Screening of Secretory Phenotypes, Nature Communications, 8, 332, August 2017
  • Nathan Crook, Joseph Abatemarco, Jie Sun, James Wagner, Alexander Schmitz, and Hal Alper, In vivo continuous evolution of genes and pathways in yeast, Nature Communications, 7, 13051, October 2016.
  • Heidi Redden and Hal Alper, The development and characterization of synthetic minimal yeast promoters, Nature Communications, 6:7810, July 2015.
  • Kathleen Curran, Nicholas Morse, Kelly Markham, Allison Wagman, Akash Gupta, and Hal Alper, 2105, Short, Synthetic Terminators for Improved Heterologous Gene Expression in Yeast, ACS Synthetic Biology, 4(7), 824–832, July 2015.
  • Leqian Liu, Anny Pan, Caitlin Spofford, Nijia Zhou, and Hal Alper, An Evolutionary Metabolic Engineering Approach for Enhancing Lipogenesis in Yarrowia lipolytica, Metabolic Engineering, 29, 36-45, May 2015.
  • Kathleen Curran, Nathan Crook, Ashty Karim, Akash Gupta, Allison Wagman, and Hal Alper, 2014, Design of synthetic yeast promoters via tuning of nucleosome architecture, Nature Communications, 5:4002, May 2014.
  • John Blazeck, Andrew Hill, Leqian Liu, Rebecca Knight, Jarrett Miller, Anny Pan, Peter Otoupal, and Hal Alper, Harnessing Yarrowia lipolytica lipogenesis to create a platform for lipid and biofuel production, Nature Communications, 5:3131, January 2014.
  • Eric Young, Alice Tong, Hang Bui, Caitlin Spofford, and Hal Alper, Rewiring yeast sugar transporter preference through modifying a conserved protein motif, PNAS, 111(1), 131-136, January 2014.
  • Kathleen Curran, John Leavitt, Ashty Karim, and Hal Alper, Metabolic Engineering of Muconic Acid Production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Metabolic Engineering, 15(1), 55-66, January 2013.
  • John Blazeck, Rishi Garg, Ben Reed, and Hal Alper, Controlling promoter strength and regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using synthetic hybrid promoters, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 109(11), 2884-2895, November, 2012.
  •  Sun-mi Lee, Taylor Jellison, and Hal Alper, Directed evolution of xylose isomerase for improved xylose catabolism and fermentation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78(16), 5708-5716, August 2012.
  • Eric Young, Austin Comer, Huashu Huang, and Hal Alper, A molecular transporter engineering approach to improving xylose catabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Metabolic Engineering, 14(4), 401-411, July 2012.
  • Amanda Lanza, John Blazeck, Nathan Crook, and Hal Alper, Linking yeast Gcn5p catalytic function and gene regulation using a quantitative, graded dominant mutant approach, PLoS ONE, 7(4), e36193, April 2012.
  • John Blazeck, Leqian Liu, Heidi Redden, and Hal Alper, Tuning Gene Expression in Yarrowia lipolytica using a Hybrid Promoter Approach, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77(22), 7905–7914, November 2011.
  • Nathan Crook, Elizabeth Freeman, and Hal Alper, Re-engineering Multicloning Sites for Function and Convenience, Nucleic Acids Research, doi: 10.1093/nar/gkr346, May 2011.
  • Eric Young, Ashley Poucher, Austin Comer, Alexandra Bailey, and Hal Alper, Functional Survey for Heterologous Sugar Transport Proteins, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a Host, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77(10), 3311–3319, May 2011.
  • John Blazeck and Hal Alper, Systems Metabolic Engineering: Genome-Scale Models and Beyond, Biotechnology Journal, 5(7), 647-659, July 2010.
  • Hal Alper and Gregory Stephanopoulos, Engineering microbes for biofuels: Exploiting innate cellular capacity or importing biosynthetic potential?, Nature Reviews Microbiology, 7(10), 715-723, October 2009.