The Chemla Lab launches March 1, 2027 in the Department of Bioengineering at UC Santa Barbara. Until then, Yonatan Chemla is a Research Scientist (postdoctoral) in the Voigt Lab at MIT, Department of Biological Engineering, and is actively recruiting the lab's founding members — see how to join. Department website: bioengineering.ucsb.edu.
About the PI
Yonatan Chemla is a synthetic biologist and biomolecular engineer, and the founding Principal Investigator of the Chemla Lab — opening March 1, 2027 in the Department of Bioengineering at UC Santa Barbara. His doctoral work at Ben-Gurion University focused on bacterial translation, genetic code expansion, and biophysical modeling of mRNA. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Christopher A. Voigt at MIT — supported by an NIH K99 Pathway-to-Independence award and a Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship — he developed tools for measuring gene expression in complex systems and studying the design and regulation of engineered bacteria for environmental release.
He holds a B.Sc. in Biological Engineering and a Ph.D. in Biology from Ben-Gurion University, and a B.A. in General History from the Open University of Israel.
What we do
The lab works at the intersection of mRNA biology, synthetic biology, and environmental biotechnology. We build tools — hyperspectral reporters, modular cell-free systems, and high-throughput functional readouts — and use them to learn how to deploy biotechnologies safely and effectively beyond the bench.
Values
- Rigor. We build the controls and the tools we need before drawing conclusions.
- Collaboration. Our questions span fields, and we work openly with people across them.
- Real-world impact. We test our designs where they matter — including outside the incubator.
- Mentorship. Lab members come first.
Funding & affiliations
The PI and the lab gratefully acknowledge support from MIT, the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), and the NIH NHGRI K99/R00 Pathway-to-Independence award.
Want to dig deeper? See our research themes, publications, or learn how to join the lab.