Kristala Jones Prather

Adviser

Kristala Jones Prather is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and leads the Prather Research Group at MIT.

Their research is centered on the design and assembly of recombinant microorganisms for the production of small molecules, with additional efforts in novel bioprocess design approaches. Research combines the traditions of metabolic engineering with the practices of biocatalysis to expand and optimize the biosynthetic capacity of microbial systems. A particular focus is the elucidation of design principles for the production of unnatural organic compounds within the framework of the burgeoning field of synthetic biology.