Meet Michael Sheets
As soon as I did BioBuilder, I knew I wanted to study bioengineering.”
Michael Sheets first learned about synthetic biology from his high school teacher, Rebekah Ravgiala, at Tyngsborough High School. That was back in 2011. He was on Tyngsborough’s first ever BioBuilderClub team and then advanced his high school interest in synthetic biology as a bioengineering undergraduate at Olin College. He is now pursuing his PhD in synthetic biology in Mary Dunlop’s lab at Boston University. Check out his recently published work on light-inducible recombinases as a tool for bacterial optogenetics. The paper is linked in the show notes.
Michael’s talent for teaching has made him a rockstar in the BioBuilder community. He not only leads the BioBuilderClub program for teams around the world, but he also mentors the current batch of budding synthetic biologists at Tyngsborough High School.
His role at BioBuilder has grown further during the 2020-2021 school year. Michael has helped nearly 500 students through BioBuilder’s newest program, the Idea Accelerator, giving students feedback and guidance on their project ideas. In this podcast, he talks about how impressed he is by all the great ideas that the students have.
Bringing his research talent, enthusiasm for teaching, and positive spirit to all he does, Michael is an extraordinary role model and BioBuilder mentor.