Melany Villegas, PhD student, received the Best Poster Award at AlgalBBB 2025 for her presentation of the poster titled “Optimizing engineered volatile isoprene production from Cyanidioschyzon merolae 10D through multi-parallel in-line headspace analysis and use of wastewater as culture medium.”

On June 16, Professor Kyle J. Lauersen delivered a conference talk at AlgalBBB 2025. His presentation, titled “Algal biotechnology and metabolic engineering in resource circularity”, offered a comprehensive overview of the field’s evolution and future directions. He described the historical context of algal biotechnology and the concept of the green cell factory, highlighted new developments in bioprocess design and current thinking around algae as waste recovery vehicles, and discussed the importance of regional considerations for algal biotechnology in the Middle East and other desert environments.

Dr. Barbara de Freitas, Postdoctoral Fellow, gave a conference talk at AlgalBBB 2025, held June 16 to 18 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Her presentation, titled “The hidden biodiversity of algae in Saudi Arabia: The KSA Algae Living Library”, highlighted ongoing efforts to explore, isolate, and characterize native algal strains from diverse environments across the Kingdom. Her talk emphasized the importance of regional bioprospecting and how uncovering local algal diversity can unlock new opportunities for scientific research and the development of bioproducts tailored to Saudi Arabia’s unique ecosystems.

This year marked the first time that AlgalBBB included Flash Talks in its program, and PhD student Melany Villegas presented her work titled “Optimizing engineered volatile isoprene production from Cyanidioschyzon merolae 10D through multi-parallel in-line headspace analysis and use of wastewater as culture medium.”

Melany Villegas and Mauricio Lopez‑Portillo Masson presented their latest research at AlgalBBB 2025. The event was held from June 16 to 18, 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Mauricio Lopez‑Portillo Masson presented a poster titled “Transformation of the nuclear genome of Galdieria sulphuraria 5587.1 and ketocarotenoid accumulation”, and Melany Villegas presented the poster titled “Optimizing engineered volatile isoprene production from Cyanidioschyzon merolae 10D through multi-parallel in-line headspace analysis and use of wastewater as culture medium”.

On June 11, Prof. Lauersen was invited to the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology by Group Leader Dr. Adrian Nievergelt. Prof. Lauersen gave a presentation highlighting the work being done by the SSB Group at KAUST covering topics of the KSA Living Library of algae, Chlamydomonas engineering, Cyanidioschyzon merolae and Galdieria.

The International Conference on Algal Biomass, Biofuels and Bioproducts (AlgalBBB 2025) will take place in Phoenix, AZ June 16-18th.

Prof. Lauersen is guest-editing a special issue of the journal Algal Research for this event. Submissions are open from May 31st until August 31st, 2025 and are exclusively for conference attendees to showcase their upcoming and cutting edge work presented in the conference.

Yuhan Zhang, who has been supervised by Dr. Kaian Teles presented his directed research work as a poster at the 2025 Bioengineering Directed Research Poster Session. Yuhan's poster, titled " High-Throughput Semi-Automated Screening of Genetic Transformation Sites in C. merolae" showcased work he has been doing with Dr. Teles and Dr. Gordon Wellman to investigate neutral loci as landing pads in the nuclear genome of Cyanidioschyzon merolae.

Prof. Lauersen was invited to represent Saudi Arabia at the 3rd Engineering Biology Research Consortium meeting from April 27-28th, 2025. The meeting was held at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla San Diego and featured attendees from around the globe working on synthetic biology / engineering biology.

A recently published collaborative research study of SSB group members and other KAUST researchers is showcased in the magazine KAUST Discovery.

Feb 18th, 2025 - Prof. Lauersen gave an invited talk at the KAUST Research Conference on Optimizing Energy in the Circular Economy.

Prof. Lauersen was appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal 'Critical Insights in Plant Science'.

Prof. Lauersen presented the achievements of the SSB lab as part of his promotion colloquium.

Prof. Lauersen and Dr. Overmans traveled to Jubail to meet industry collaborators from Sipchem at their production plant.

This week, the SSB Lab hosted Prof. Kirill Alexandrov from QUT.

Razan Yahya successfully defended her thesis to her PhD committee today.

SSB lab member Malak Abdallah successfully defended her PhD thesis today.

Professor Lauersen won this year's KAUST Distinguished Teaching Award for his contribution to the Bioengineering program.

SSB Lab invited Prof. Ira “Ike” Levine to KAUST last week.

Prof. Lauersen, Melany Villegas Valencia, and Mauricio Masson attended the 13th International CeBiTec Research Conference, in Bielefeld, Germany, September 16th – 18th, 2024.