Meet The Team

Lahiru Jayakody is an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and has a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences and Fermentation Science Institute.  He also serves as Editor in Chief to Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, one of the prestigious journals in Biotechnology.  His research studies primarily aim to develop robust microbial cell factories via systems biology, synthetic microbiology, and metabolic engineering approaches to valorize conventional (biomass) and unconventional substrates (industrial waste).  His findings contribute to understanding cellular processes of fundamental and industrial interests to tailor model and non-model biocatalysts to enable engineering microbes to high-value fuels, chemicals, and bio-materials from waste, including plastic. He has several impactful publications and patents on waste valorization via engineered microbes, and currently, his research team works on developing microbial cell factories to Upcycle Plastic.

Google Scholar Link 

SIU Microbiology program Link

Ph.D. (Biotechnology) Kagoshima University, Japan (Advisor: Prof. Hiroshi Kitagaki). Postdoctoral research associate,   Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, IL, USA. (Advisor: Prof. Young-Su Jin)., Post doctoral researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, CO, USA. (Advisor: Dr. Gregg Beckham). 

Lakshika is working on characterizing novel microbial host strain Erwinia renovo LJJL01, and engineering the bacteria to upcycle plastic (waste textile), winner of SIUC Graduate Fellowship 2022 and 2023, winner of the EREF Graduate Scholarship

Sandhya is working on developing yeast to upcycle plastic 

Abby is working on developing "cow-less" milk using microbial platform. (REACH Scholar 2022-2023)

Bhagya is working on developing engineered microbes to valorize OHD substrates from industrial waste