Mark Pampuch

PhD Student

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Biography

Mark is a visiting research student in the SSB group at KAUST under the supervision of professor Kyle J. Lauersen. Mark is from Toronto, Canada. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario, specializing in genetics. He started his research at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, working on optimizing nitrogen assimilation in crop plants. He continued to pursue a Master’s of Science in Biochemistry, where his research focused on improving DNA delivery methods to marine microalgae. Mark has a general interest in how biotechnology can be utilized to better the planet.

Research Interests

Sequence the genomes and help characterize extremophile organisms to accelerate their use as biotechnology platforms.

Selected Publications

Pampuch, M., Walker, E.J.L., and Karas, B.J. (2022) Towards synthetic diatoms: The Phaeodactylum tricornutum Pt-syn 1.0 project. Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2022.100611

Education

  • Master of Science in Biochemistry (Western University, London, Ontario, Canada) 2021-2023
  • Bachelors of Science in Biology (Western University, London, Ontario, Canada) 2016-2020

Awards

  • Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s Program (issued by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), $17,500)
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (issued by the Ontario Government, $15,000)

KAUST Affiliations

  • Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology Group
  • Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering

Research Interests Keywords

Synthetic Biology Algal Biotechnology Sustainability DNA sequencing Genetics