The Microbe Hackers is a very active and exciting undergraduate teaching and research lab at the University of Texas at Austin. We are part of the Freshman Research Initiative (the FRI program). We conduct research in the field of synthetic biology during the academic year as well as the summer. The stream is lead by Professor Dennis Mishler, the research educator, and Professor Barrick, the stream’s PI. On our page below, you will find information about our research projects, our course curriculum, and what it means to be a “Microbe Hacker” and a member of the FRI program overall.
In this FRI stream, we do research in the vast and emerging field of synthetic biology. We genetically engineer bacteria for a purpose of our choosing. To do so, we must work with “genetic devices” (DNA sequences) and specific technology and techniques that are used in research across many disciplines: synthetic biology, molecular biology, microbiology, cell biology, and many more.
Students in our group have presented their research at symposiums on campus and conferences across the country, published blog posts and research articles, and gone on to graduate programs in the health professions and business school, medical school, and PhD programs. Others have taken their experience and pivoted, using the time with us to develop vital skills for 21st century job markets. Many of these students, maybe even most, joined us with little to NO previous lab experience.
Some parts of this website are still under construction. Our old website (very out of date -2019- and not maintained) can be found on archive.org here: Old Microbe Hackers website. Note: It may load slowly.