Tasha Desai

Bio

 * Currently working as a Senior Scientist for Dial Corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona.
 * PhD in Chemical Engineering (2009) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 * Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering (2006) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 * Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (2004) from the Texas A&M University.

Graduate Activities

 * President of ChBE Graduate Student Advisory Council (2005-2007)
 * Teaching Assistant
 * Process Dynamics and Control (Fall 2005)
 * Mass Transfer and Separation Processes (Spring 2006, Spring 2007)
 * Department Tutor
 * Material and Energy Balances (Fall 2007)
 * Mass transfer (Spring 2008)

Research

 * Studied xylose and arabinose transporters in E. coli (PhD).
 * Studied the transcriptional activator, CRP (MS)

Presentations

 * AIChE 2008
 * ACS 2008
 * AIChE 2007
 * UIUC Symposium 2007
 * AIChE 2006
 * UIUC Symposium 2006

Publications
Desai, T. A., D. A. Rodionov, M. S. Gelfand, E. J. Alm, and C. V. Rao. 2009. Engineering transcription factors with novel DNA-binding specificity using comparative genomics. Nucleic Acids Res. 2009 May;37(8):2493-503. Epub 2009 Mar 5.

Contact
tadesai11@gmail.com