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I am a bioengineer currently working in George Church's group at the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. In July 2011 I graduated from Imperial College London in biology with a year in industry. My industrial placement was spent with Ginkgo Bioworks , a leading startup company from MIT in the field of synthetic biology.

As part of my thesis at Imperial College London, I engineered bacteria to respond to a chemical stimulus in an electronic-friendly fashion allowing faster and easier collection of data directly from living organisms. This work was started in the Ellis lab and was continued through the summer of 2011 at IBM Research in Hawthorne, NY. Following my internship I was offered a full Ph.D. scholarship by IBM.

Other past activities include creating BioBright: a biotech startup, being part of the Imperial College iGEM team, create bioengineered inks and help establish the BOSSLAB.

In my free time I enjoy cinema, italian and flemish renaissance paintings such as those painted by Caravaggio and Van Eyk and Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture. I have also a large interest in hobby electronics and 3D printing. I own a Makerbot (I know they're poorly engineered, but great for prototyping at home).

2011   Resume  (PDF 122kb)

Steve Heisig, Mentor at IBM Research

"When Charles was a summer intern at Watson in 2011 I was his supervisor. The Systems department had no experience with biology so first off he had to do quite a bit of education. Charles is a patient, articulate, and enthusiastic advocate for synthetic biology. He is also able to communicate to the entire hierarchy diplomatically without leaving misconceptions unaddressed. We (IBM) didn't get part of our sensor flow built, and had no facilities for actual wet work but he was able to cobble together an inexpensive solution within the constraints of our bureaucracy with integrity. We were actually able to exercise the entire flow of our biologic to electronic project. So despite what must have seemed like our best efforts to make him fail Charles persevered and we were really happy with the results. As a concrete expression of our feelings we have offered to sponsor him for a fellowship to fund a Ph.D. if he chooses to pursue one. Charles is not a narrow domain expert, but conversant, curious and undaunted in hardware and software dimensions as well.
Of all the interns I've seen in the last 15 years (most of whom were Phd candidates) Charles was by far the most capable in the most dimensions."

Barry Canton, Supervisor at Ginkgo Bioworks

"Charles is passionate and dedicated about engineering biology. He is hard-working and creative. During his time at Ginkgo BioWorks, he made significant contributions to our automated DNA assembly platform. He is also an excellent team member and eager to learn. He has a perspective on the field that is impressive for his experience level.""