Nathan Crook

Bio

Dr. Crook leads a group of talented, motivated, and collaborative individuals focused on applying genetic engineering, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to solve pressing issues in health, agriculture, and the climate. Dr. Crook received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2009 and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. During his PhD, he developed new techniques for engineering yeast under the mentorship of Dr. Hal Alper. Dr. Crook then moved to Washington University in Saint Louis, where he studied the behavior of engineered probiotic bacteria under the mentorship of Dr. Gautam Dantas. Dr. Crook started his lab at NCSU in 2014. His group develops engineered probiotic yeast that can synthesize drugs within the gut, marine bacteria that can degrade plastics, and root bacteria that can promote plant growth.