jboktor

Joseph Boktor, is a second year graduate student in the department of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He was an honors graduate from Johns Hopkins University, where he received a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Joseph has conducted research under the supervision of Narutoshi Hibino, M.D. Ph.D., Matt Thomson, Ph.D., and Sarkis Mazmanian, Ph.D. In 2016, Joseph joined the Hibino Lab where he contributed to the development of novel cardiac tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting approaches. This work has generated proofs of concept for molecular gene-therapy of arrhythmia on 3D cardiac tissues as well as de novo fabrication of 3D cardiac tissues for therapeutic applications. Joseph became a member of the Caltech Mazmanian Lab in 2017 to study the effects of the gut microbiota on the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. In this time, he has contributed to numerous projects ranging from interrogation of a microbial metabolite on anxiety behaviors in mice to computational analysis of the Parkinson’s disease gut metagenome for biomarker discovery. Current primary research interests include exploration of microbial influences on host metabolic and immune systems, environmental bioremediation, and microbial protein engineering.

October 2023