Assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University - harnessing fungi for food and sustainability. Trained in restaurants and labs. he/him
Berkeley, CA
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Our latest paper @NatureMicrobiol: converting waste into delicious food using fungi. We studied a traditional Indonesian food and discovered a mold domesticated for waste-to-food conversion. Amazing international collab involving scientists, chefs. tinyurl.com/36rzkr57
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Excited to share I will be joining @Stanford @bioe_stanford this fall as an asst. prof! My group will harness fungi for food and sustainability applications. We’ll soon be recruiting on all fronts - stay tuned !! Grateful to @BalskusLab @Keasling_Lab @UCB_MillerInst for support!
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Our latest paper: human gut microbes eat neurotransmitters and food! A new group of enzymes degrades prominent molecules in the gut and is widely distributed among environmental microbes and other mammals. Fascinating chemistry and vast diversity bit.ly/3bLBvkc
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Ph.D. in Biochemistry from @Harvard 🇨🇺🇮🇳🇳🇴🇸🇪My thesis explored how gut microbes break down medicine and food. Proud of the scientific and personal work captured in these past years. This is for those who let me dream-my partner, family, mentors, #Gilliamfellowship from @HHMINEWS
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The Hill-Maini lab website is live @bioe_stanford @Stanford. We are hiring for multiple postdocs who are excited about synbio/food/sustainability in filamentous fungi and building an inclusive and lab culture that fosters creativity! Spread the word!!!
hillmainilab.com/
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Fungi are key for feeding a growing population. Most current food strains were domesticated by our ancestors over 1000+ yrs. What does the next wave of domestication look like?
We develop a synbio toolkit to program sensory appeal/nutrition of fungal meat!
nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
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Excited to have this published in @CellCellPress with my wonderful collaborators in @DTUBiosustain @moasommer @LeonieJJahn - our perspectives on microbial foods for the future health of the planet and people.
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
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Moved east-->west to start my position as a @UCB_MillerInst fellow at @UCBerkeley where I will spend the next 3 years understanding + engineering microbial chemistry in food production. Working primarily w/ @Keasling_Lab. Excited to combine my passions of cooking + science!!!
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A true honor to be part of this group of amazing scientists selected from 130 institutions worldwide for their contributions in molecular life science. Grateful to @BalskusLab, @HHMINEWS, and my mentors and friends who made this possible. And the microbes! bit.ly/3jLv2cO
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The culmination of many years of work by us in the @BalskusLab and wonderful collaborators in the @PTurnbaugh lab. We find the organisms in our gut eat the Parkinson's drug L-dopa and the neurotransmitter dopamine! Have a read!
science.sciencemag.org/conte…
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First postdoc article out!
From lab to table-a collaboration between 2 Michelin star restaurant Alchemist and the @Keasling_Lab at Berkeley that speaks to the power of bridging science with gastronomy to drive food innovation. Thanks @UCB_MillerInst also!
shorturl.at/vxCKX
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We characterize a gut bacterial enzyme that dehydroxylate neurotransmitters available in the human gut. We also discover similar enzymes that metabolize diet/host molecules. Have a look for challenging chemistry, new enzymes, and cool biological implications!
A widely distributed metalloenzyme class enables gut microbial metabolism of host- and diet-derived catechols biorxiv.org/cgi/content/shor… #biorxiv_micrbio
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This fellowship has been the single most impactful experience in my scientific career. Proud of the next generation!!!
Congratulations to all the 2019 #GilliamFellows and their advisers! We’re asking them: What does mentorship mean to you? bit.ly/2SUyLYY
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Cooking raw and cooked meals with the exact same ingredients for humans was extremely challenging! Read the latest feature in @nytimes on our cooking+microbiota work. Thx @PTurnbaugh and Rachel Carmody for the opportunity.
nytimes.com/2019/10/23/healt…
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Could fungi be used to turn waste into food? Check out this exciting feature by @UCBerkeley about our recent work in @NatureMicrobiol
news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/29…
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nature.com/articles/s41564-0…
Excited for our new paper to be published! We find that consuming cooked food instead of raw food impacts the trillions of microbes living inside our guts (microbiota). Implications for human health and evolution!
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Here is a longer summary (a thread):
1/3 A new enzyme enables the human gut microbe E. lenta to break down the neurotransmitter dopamine, which helps it grow better. Similar enzymes allow E. lenta and related organisms break down molecules from food (incl. coffee and chocolate).
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Just found this feature of my research in @sciam - exciting to see the findings being shared with the public! scientificamerican.com/artic…
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Fungi have been used for millennia in human food production. What does the future look like?
Tune in to this podcast where I share some thoughts!! Thanks to Dave Zilber, Elisa Caffrey, @LabSonnenburg for hosting
open.spotify.com/episode/6gT…
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2/3 This new group of enzymes harbors many uncharacterized members. Similar enzymes are present in the microbiome of other mammals and in microbes living in the environment, where the enzymes produce potent anti cancer molecules and break down environmental chemicals.
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3/3. Our study solves a long-standing mystery in gut microbial metabolism. Implications for nervous system-microbe interactions, nutrition, microbial metabolism, and enzymology. and: cool chemistry: regiospecific aromatic dehydroxylation of catechols - very challenging reaction!!
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Thank you to my professor @BalskusLab and to the collaborators @ElizabethNBess and @PTurnbaugh. Shout-out to Michael, Chip, Sina, Paola, Jordan for their great work.
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Excited to finally see this published. We find that amino acid availability and gut microbiota composition influences susceptibility to the gut pathogen C. difficile in humans, laying the foundation for new diagnostics / therapeutics.
goo.gl/Vva2Lt
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get ready for the event of the year: the annual harvard-wide cooking competition for biological science PhDs!
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Very important video that captures the multiracial/multiethnic experience. As a Cuban-Indian-Norwegian born in Sweden, this sums up my life. Never enough of anything to really fit in even though you feel connections to many cultures. bbc.com/news/av/world-us-can…
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Join me @Rachel_Herz , @ebherwick3 on @GBH on Thursday at 7 pm ET for a chat about the science of food. Free and open, register here: wgbh.org/events/bostontalks-…
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Was just featured on the official podcast of America's Test Kitchen
Talking about some of my research on gut microbes and food! Check it out
americastestkitchen.com/proo…
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Was recently featured on @wgbh answering some questions about science and cooking - have a listen!
wgbh.org/news/lifestyle/2019…
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In one week: super excited to join my favorite radio station @wgbh of Boston to talk about the science of food with Edgar Herwick, @Rachel_Herz . Free and open to the public - wgbh.org/events/bostontalks-…
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Had such a blast participating in this event - the recording is now live!!
#BostonTalks The Science of Food is now online! Check out @ebherwick3 talking with @Rachel_Herz and @NOFOKitchen here: bit.ly/3sHOv2x Thanks to @GBHForumNetwork for this and so much great content!
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a wonderful science and cooking experiment you can try at home - this was a great collaboration between EdX at Harvard University and Young Chefs Program: From Cooking to Science
check it out
piped.video/RgvoAomnv-o
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Incredible experience. Always inspiring to meet the students and advisors who also receive training in mentorship. Sad to have attended my last one but this family will be with me forever.
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Externally grateful for my past five week at basque culinary center. Living in a beautiful place and enjoying its gastronomy, working in an interdisciplinary team, sharing my research… instagram.com/p/B4ckledoeGPO…
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Check out this recent feature on the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Veritalk Podcast where I talk about science, cooking, and gut microbes along with another PhD student.
simplecast.com/s/5231d06c
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Had a blast talking about microbes and foods with @ebherwick3 of @GBH the other week! Check it out
Beyond studying how the microbiome influences our digestion of food, scientist, chef, and educator @NOFOKitchen wants to experiment with microbes in the kitchen, asking, "How can we actually harness microorganism for producing food?" Learn more▶️ to.wgbh.org/3fIxZf2
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Had a great time at STAMPS at Woods Hole Marine Biological Labs!
"rarefaction based machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms" in the CRapPy software for microbial population analysis by @NOFOKitchen, @differding_ , and @tkkanno
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Thank you ! We are very intrigued by this connection between hut microbes and the dopaminergic system ....
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And a fantastic video as well:
piped.video/TT5TjufOzVo?si=iUPE…
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Thank you to all the amazing collaborators: @jgi @Keasling_Lab @jaykeasling @ipbofficial @DTUBiosustain and special shout out to @PabloCruzMoral1 @jose Manuel Villalobos. @UCBerkeley
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Amazing photos, I love learning from you! I am looking forward to visiting your university in March.
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Just posted a photo @ Alchemist instagram.com/vayumr/p/CXJvj…
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This happens to me all the time. I’m mixed too. The level of my answer depends on whether I think it’s worth explaining. So many times people answer me telling me what I am - why ask if you won’t even listen ?
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A summer in Nature’s FARMacy: Finding new connections between cooking, science, and social… vayumainirekdal.com/2015/08/…
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Thank you for the kind words !! I have enjoyed every time I got to see you at the meetings. Now I’ll on the same coast as you - moving to Berkeley !!! Hope to meet soon
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So excited to participate in this on Thursday at 2pm PT - a dream team of people in food and science reflecting on their careers and the future of the field. Free and open to the public.
We are excited to continue our discussion about food science this week! Join us this Thursday, March 11 at 2pm as we talk about careers and research as we look at The Future of Food. #FoodForThought #STEMrising #STEMcareers eventbrite.com/e/stem-career……
First publication in graduate school: highlighting opportunities and gaps in our… vayumainirekdal.com/2017/07/…
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Featured on WGBH, Boston’s Public Radio Station vayumainirekdal.com/2018/01/…
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newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/03/1…
Here is a great feature on the work!
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Just posted a photo @ Alchemist instagram.com/p/CVx_m0zMenqB…
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Had a fantastic time chatting about the science of food on @wgbh yesterday! Great questions from the over 600 people in attendance! @ Berkeley, California instagram.com/p/CM4qI_zJfTiO…
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Catherine, thank you for all the support along the way! You made me feel welcome early on. Doesn’t feel that long ago we chatted about microbiota and social behavior at recruitment !! Thank you.
Thank you!!! Gonna miss our cooking adventures, we had so much fun with the competition !! Take care, hope to see you at Berkeley
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