feist lab - our team

Meet the team of scientists, engineers, and students working together across San Diego and Copenhagen.

feist lab - our team

Meet the team of scientists, engineers, and students working together across San Diego and Copenhagen.

principal investigator

adam m. feist

Professor

Adam Feist is a Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Future Biomanufacturing Center at UC San Diego, and a Group Leader at DTU’s BRIGHT BioFoundry in Copenhagen. The lab brings together engineers and scientists who combine evolutionary engineering at scale, quantitative biology, and genome-scale modeling to answer fundamental questions in biology and translate the answers into applications.

adam m. feist

Professor

Adam Feist leads a lab at the interface of laboratory automation, evolution, and computational biology. The group developed an automated platform for adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and a bioinformatics database that turns thousands of evolved mutations into design rules — connecting fundamental discovery about how microbes adapt to applied strain engineering for biofuels, bioproducts, and sustainable manufacturing. Work spans wet-lab automation and genome-scale modeling, with teams in San Diego and Copenhagen.

Team - UC san diego

R&D Engineer 2

Ciara deVenecia

R&D Engineer 2

Ciara deVenecia

R&D Engineer 3

Elina Olson

R&D Engineer 3

Elina Olson

Postdoctoral Scholar

Sunghwa Woo

Postdoctoral Scholar

Sunghwa Woo

PhD Student

Cassandra Reyes

PhD Student

Cassandra Reyes

PhD Student

Cassandra Reyes

PhD Student

Josh Kome

PhD Student

Josh Kome

MS Student

Weiyan (Katie) Wang

MS Student

Weiyan (Katie) Wang

MS Student

Aarya Pandit

MS Student

Aarya Pandit

MS Student

Jacob Klien-Cohen

MS Student

Jacob Klien-Cohen

Undergraduate Media

Paula Zhang

Undergraduate Media

Paula Zhang

Undergraduate Media

Paula Zhang

Nikita Harwich

Undergraduate Researcher

Undergraduate Researcher

Akhil Renjith

Undergraduate Researcher

Undergraduate Researcher

Team - DTU

Fermentation Specialist

Elsayed Mohamed

Fermentation Specialist

Elsayed Mohamed

Fermentation Specialist

Riccardo Rossi

Fermentation Specialist

Riccardo Rossi

Automation Scientist

Martina Fricano

Automation Scientist

Martina Fricano

Lab Alumni

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2011-2012

|

PhD

|

2012-2014

|

PhD

|

2010-2016

|

PhD

Ryan Lacroix

*

|

2010-2016

|

PhD

|

2010-2016

|

PhD

|

2012-2016

|

PhD

|

2014-2016

|

PhD

|

2010-2017

|

PhD

|

2012-2018

|

PhD

|

2016-2018

|

MS

|

2017-2018

|

MS

|

2017-2018

|

MS

|

2014-2019

|

PhD

|

2013-2019

|

PhD

|

2018-2019

|

MS

|

2018-2020

|

Postdoc

|

2016-2020

|

PhD

|

2018-2020

|

Staff

|

2019-2020

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Staff

|

2017-2021

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Postdoc

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2014-2021

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PhD

|

2015-2022

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PhD

(DTU)

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2019-2022

|

Staff

(DTU)

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2020-2022

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Staff

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2019-2023

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Postdoc

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2021-2023

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Postdoc

|

2022-2023

|

MS

|

2023

|

Staff

|

2022-2024

|

Staff

|

2024-2025

|

MS

|

2017-2025

|

Staff

|

2025-2026

|

MS

*co-mentored with Dr. Bernhard Palsson

Lab Locations

San Diego, CA

University of California San Diego

Copenhagen, Denmark

Technical University of Denmark

Get in Touch

Follow Us

In accordance with applicable Federal and State law and University policy, the University of California does not discriminate, or grant preferences, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories. More information about Proposition 209 can be found here. More information about the University of California Anti-Discrimination Policy can be found here. Initiatives are open to all eligible members of the UC San Diego campus community and does not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories.

©2026 by Adam Feist and UC San Diego. All rights reserved.

Lab Locations

San Diego, CA

University of California San Diego

Copenhagen, Denmark

Technical University of Denmark

Get in Touch

Follow Us

In accordance with applicable Federal and State law and University policy, the University of California does not discriminate, or grant preferences, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories. More information about Proposition 209 can be found here. More information about the University of California Anti-Discrimination Policy can be found here. Initiatives are open to all eligible members of the UC San Diego campus community and does not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories.


©2026 by Adam Feist and UC San Diego. All rights reserved.