Kristala Jones Prather

Kristala Jones Prather is an American professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research is focused on using novel bioprocesses to design recombinant microorganisms to produce small molecules.

Kristala Jones Prather
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California, Berkeley
Scientific career
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorJay Keasling
Websitehttp://prathergroup.mit.edu/

Early life and education

Prather was born in Cincinnati.[1] She grew up in Longview, Texas.[2] She was inspired to study chemical engineering by her physics and calculus teachers.[2][3] She earned a Bachelor of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.[4] She has been involved with the National Society of Black Engineers and National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.[2][5] She completed her PhD at University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1999.

Research and career

Prather worked at BioProcess R&D and the Merck & Co. labs for four years, working on biocatalysis for the transformation of small molecules and mammalian cell lines for therapeutic proteins.[6][7] This allowed her to produce drugs with biological processes rather than chemical reactions.[8] She was appointed to the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004.[8] In 2009, her team created a glucaric acid from Escherichia coli which contained enzymes from three organisms.[8]

In 2014, she was appointed a Fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.[9] In 2016, she was an investigator in the multi-institutional Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, as well as leader of the Prather lab.[10][11] She specializes in retrobiosynthesis.[12][13] These pathways use synthetic DNA that can be added to biological hosts.[14][15][16] In 2018, she gave expert evidence to the National Academy of Sciences about vulnerabilities in biodefense.[17]

Prather was a reviewer for the ACS synthetic biology in 2016 and 2018 and for the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2016 in 2017.

Prather is known for her teaching, mentoring, and advocacy.[18][19][20] In 2016, she was profiled on Spellbound, how kids become scientists.[2] In 2015, Prather was on the advisory board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars SynBio Project.[21] She has been involved with several initiatives to support MIT students of color.[22]

Selected publications

Honors and awards

2005 - Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award[4][23]

2007 - Technology Review "TR35" Young Innovator Award[24]

2018 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seed Grant[25]

2010 - National Science Foundation CAREER Award[26][27]

2010 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching[28][20]

2011 - Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award[29]

2012 - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions[30]

2014 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology MacVicar Faculty Fellow[18]

2017 - Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Charles Thom Award[31]

2017 - Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award[32]

2018 - AAAS Fellow[33]

2021 - Gordon Y. Billard Award[34]

2021 - AIChE's Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering[34]

References
  1. "Institute Archives and Special Collections" (PDF). MIT. 2011-02-11. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  2. "Finding Her Way: Kristala L. Jones Prather, Ph.D. - Science360 - Video Library". 2019-08-27. Archived from the original on 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  3. TeachingExcellence MIT (2017-03-15), Storied Women at MIT: Kristala L. Jones Prather, retrieved 2018-05-23
  4. "Plenary Speakers: ECB 2018". www.ecb2018.com. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  5. "NOBCChE 37th Annual Conference | Atlanta, GA | March 29 - April 2, 2010". Issuu. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  6. "Kristala Jones Prather". Source of the Week. 2015-08-17. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  7. "Turning bacteria into chemical factories". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  8. "The Bigger Questions". Science | AAAS. 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  9. "Kristala Jones Prather". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. 2014-04-22. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  10. "Symposium: Beyond 2016—MIT's Frontiers of the Future | MIT 2016". mit2016.mit.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  11. lukem (2016-02-02). "Kristala L. Jones Prather". Programs for Professionals | MIT Professional Education. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  12. "MIT Scientist Kristala Jones Prather Finds Breakthroughs in Bioengineering". Robert R. Taylor Network. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  13. "Graduate Seminar: Kristala L. Jones Prather". Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  14. iBiology (2014-02-07), Kristala L. J. Prather (MIT) Part 1: Introduction to Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering, retrieved 2018-05-23
  15. iBiology (2014-02-07), Kristala L. J. Prather (MIT) Part 2: Teaching an Old Bacterium New Tricks, retrieved 2018-05-23
  16. Harvey Mudd College, videos (2014-12-03), Chemical Engineer Kristala L.J. Prather - 2014 Nelson Series, retrieved 2018-05-23
  17. "Committee: Strategies for Identifying and Addressing Biodefense Vulnerabilities Posed by Synthetic Biology". www8.nationalacademies.org. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  18. "Five professors named 2014 MacVicar Faculty Fellows". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  19. "Kristala Prather | FabFems". www.fabfems.org. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  20. "JBHE: Latest News for 1/6/11". www.jbhe.com. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  21. "Kristala Jones Prather - Synthetic Biology Project". www.synbioproject.org. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  22. "Capture the MO*MIT". mitblackhistory.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  23. "Founders and Advisors |". www.synlogictx.com. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  24. "MIT faculty, alumni among Technology Review's top young innovators". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  25. "Recipients of first round of seed grants for MIT energy research". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  26. "Kristala Jones Prather". www.aiche.org. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  27. Kristala, Prather. "CAREER: Design, Construction and Characterization of Metabolite Valves". Grantome.
  28. "Kristala Prather honored for excellence in teaching". MIT News. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  29. Biochemical Engineering Journal.
  30. "Kristala Prather". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  31. "Charles Thom Award Winner 2017 - Kristala Prather". SIMB Annual Meeting. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  32. "MLK Leadership Award – Diversity – Equity – Inclusion at MIT". diversity.mit.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  33. "Three MIT faculty elected 2018 AAAS Fellows". news.mit.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  34. "Kristala L. Jones Prather – MIT Chemical Engineering". Retrieved 2022-03-02.
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