Nathan Crook

Bio

Research Areas:

Metabolic Engineering, Synthetic Biology, Microbial Ecology

The Crook Lab develops new high-throughput experimental and computational genetic engineering techniques. In doing so, we hope to uncover novel biological phenomena and accelerate applied research and development in the broad areas of metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and microbial ecology.

Our current application focus is the human gut microbiota. The ability of the gut microbiota to influence health has recently been uncovered, enabled by high-throughput DNA sequencing and animal models in which community composition is precisely controlled. The ultimate goal of this focus is the development of foundational technologies by which engineered gut commensal ecosystems can be designed and assembled as a matter of practice, enabling the conversion of food into a healthy mixture of energy, nutrients, and therapeutics.

Publications

• Construction of a Heterologous Pathway in Escherichia coli for Terephthalate Assimilation , (2025)
• Development of Peptide Glucosyltransferase Inhibitors With Comprehensive Coverage Across Clostridioides difficile Toxin B Sub‐Types , Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2025)
• Differential metaproteomics of bacteria grown in vitro and in planta reveals functions used during growth on maize roots , (2025)
• Enabling technologies for in situ biomanufacturing using probiotic yeast , Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (2025)
• Engineered microorganisms with enhanced protein expression and secretion , (2025)
• Inducible genome-wide mutagenesis for improvement of pDNA production by E. coli , Microbial Cell Factories (2025)
• Investigating the restriction-modification barrier to DNA delivery in human gut probiotic bacteria for streamlined genetic tool development , Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (2025)
• Pickering Emulsion for Enhanced Viability of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria and Combined Delivery of Agrochemicals and Biologics , Advanced Functional Materials (2025)
• Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes , Nature Biotechnology (2025)
• Techno-economic analysis of industrial-scale fermentation for formate dehydrogenase (FDH) production , Bioresources and Bioprocessing (2025)