SYBORGS Lab - University of Florida

SYBORGS Lab Info

Principal Investigator Bio

Principal Investigator Bio

Amor A. Menezes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, also affiliated with the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. His research interests lie in the modeling and control of biological processes for medical and space applications. His group has used feedback control to manipulate the concentrations of proteins driving inflammation-mediated coagulation disorders; advanced the theoretical underpinnings of biomolecular dynamical systems whose states are restricted to non-negative values; designed integrated biomanufacturing systems for Mars deployment; and genetically engineered microbes to reject extreme environments. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, and completed postdocs in Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. For his work in space synthetic biology, he was named a Fellow of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program, and for his articulation of genetic control modules, he was named an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security. His research has been featured by national and international media outlets, including Science Today (CBS Radio), Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Der Spiegel, and Cosmos Magazine. Between 2017 and 2023, he was the Science PI of NASA's Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space, and he is currently the PI of three flights to the International Space Station to investigate gravitational effects on the microbial biomanufacturing of pharmaceuticals. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Control Systems Society Technology Conference Editorial Board. He is also a Member of AIAA, ASME, and ASGSR. His lab is funded by the DoD and NASA.

 

Address

SYBORGS Laboratory
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Florida
571 Gale Lemerand Drive, MAE-C 124
Gainesville, FL 32611-6250

Amor A. Menezes
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Florida
527 Gale Lemerand Drive, WERT 489
Gainesville, FL 32611-6250

Email: amormenezes [-at-] ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 294-0470
Fax: (352) 392-7303


Logo

The SYBORGS Lab logo was designed by Karen Ingram. Its prime elements depict the lab's focus on cell-based controllers. The logo's secondary elements showcase cellular stochasticity. Together with the color scheme, these elements simultaneously evoke stars in the night sky, and hence the space efforts that the SYBORGS Lab also engages in.