Phillip A. Romero

Principal Investigator

Phil received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and was a professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison from 2016 to 2024 prior to moving to Duke in August 2024. In his spare time, Phil enjoys going on runs and spending time with his family.

Meet the Team

  • Nathaniel Blalock

    PhD student, UW-Madison Chemical and Biological Engineering

    B.S. at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

    Fun fact: Nathaniel enjoys running marathons as someone with Type I diabetes

  • Leonardo Blankenburg Arruda

    PhD student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S. & M.S. at University of Campinas, Brazil

  • Coban Brooks

    PhD student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S. at Oregon State University

    Fun fact: Coban grew up in Indonesia and holds triple citizenship

  • Alex Ivan

    Undergraduate Researcher, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    Class of 2026

    Fun Fact: Alex likes to perform card magic for his friends

  • Job Grant, PhD

    Joint Lab Manager

    Ph.D. at University of South Carolina

  • Tianchen Guan

    Masters Affiliate Researcher

    B.S. at UW-Madison

    Fun Fact: Tianchen started primary school in Switzerland speaking zero English or German, and somehow still survived!

  • Pete Heinzelman

    Research Scientist

    PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Fun Fact: Pete grew a pumpkin that reached 115 lbs. in weight

  • Bryce Johnson

    PhD student, Co-advised with Anthony Gitter, Computer Sciences, UW-Madison

    B.S. at University of Minnesota

    Fun Fact: The picture above was actually taken 8 years ago

  • Jeonghyeon Kim

    PhD student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S. & M.S. at Seoul National University

    Fun fact: Jeonghyeon is making the most of his South Korean passport, exploring about 20 countries so far!

  • Ameya Kulkarni

    Undergrad Researcher, Duke Computer Sciences and Math

    class of 2028


    Fun Fact: Ameya is a Canadian citizen but has never been to Canada

  • Kensuke Nakamura

    Visiting Researcher


    PhD at Sokendai University


    Fun Fact: After his >10hr flight to US, he was escorted by a security and was told "You going back home, man!"

  • Naia Novy

    PhD student, Co-advised with Vatsan Raman, Biochemistry, UW-Madison

    B.S. at University of Washington

  • Benjamin Perry

    PhD student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S.E at Duke University

    Fun fact: Ben missed a meeting with the United States President due to COVID

  • Sri Seshadri

    PhD Student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S. at Case Western Reserve University

    Fun fact: Sri gave a TEDx Youth talk in 2014 titled "Some Shrooms, some Grass, and some Alcohol”

  • Islam Tayeb

    Undergrad Researcher, Duke University

    Class of 2027

  • Meg Taylor

    PhD student, Duke Biomedical Engineering

    B.S. at Baylor University

    Fun fact: Meg began college as a music major and still performs with Moment of Magic as Disney characters.

Lab Alumni

    • Leland Hyman - Scientist, Sherlock Biosciences

    • Sonali Gupta

    • Jonathan Greenhalgh - Scientist, CleanJoule

    • Jacob Rapp - Postdoctoral Scholar, The Joint BioEnergy Institute & Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

    • Juan Diaz

    • Nishit Banka - Business Development Manger, Planet Protector Group, India

    • Mark Mahnke

    • Paul Perkovich - Scientist, CleanJoule

    • Chase Freschlin - Postdoctoral Scholar, Fordyce Lab, Stanford University

    • Andres Lira - PhD student, Wayment-Steele Lab, UW-Madison

    • Sophia Ulmer - PhD student, Raman Lab, UW-Madison

    • Aaron Lin - Scientist, Metagenomi

    • Mark Politz - Scientist, Benson Hill

    • Michael Rowse - Biology Faculty, IUPUC

    • Sameer D’Costa- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

    • Jerry Duan

    • Trent Hinkle - Researcher, Genentech

    • Kane Nania

    • Apoorv Saraogee - Researcher, Zymergen

    • Agrim Babbar - MSE student, UPenn

    • Alejandro Beltran Nogal - PhD student, ICP-CSIC (Madrid)

    • Ben Bremer - Researcher, Ascidian Therapeutics

    • Emily Hinds - Graduate Student, University of Chicago

    • Haiyang Zheng - Graduate Student, Baylor College of Medicine

    • Sarah Fahlberg - AI/ML Researcher, Nimble Therapeutics

    • Claire Schleicher - Undergraduate Researcher, Raman Lab, UW-Madison