User:Kunal Mehta
Kunal K Mehta (કુનાલ કારતિક મહેતા)
I grew up in Orange County, and went to college at UCLA, where I worked with Jacob Schmidt on a single-molecule DNA sequencing technology. After that, I spent a year doing research with Hagan Bayley in Oxford on nanopore sensing technologies. Right now I'm in my third year as a PhD student in Bioengineering at Stanford. My career interests are in biotechnology, education, and technology policy.
Outside of work, I’m a violinist (especially chamber music) and a budding amateur photographer (especially landscape and architecture photography). Mountains – whether hiking in the summer or skiing in the winter – are my favorite places to go. I love traveling, and I’m always looking for travel companions.
Download a copy of my CV (Updated in December 2013) or visit my website at Stanford, which contains miscellaneous writing and computer programs.
Contact Details
Stanford University
Department of Bioengineering
Shriram Center 060A
443 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305
kkmehta {at} stanford
949.636.4345
Education
- Spring 2015 (expected), PhD, Stanford University
- 2010, MSc, University of Oxford
- 2008, BS, University of California, Los Angeles
Research interests
My general interest is in engineering biological systems to replace industrial processes to produce fuels, chemicals, and building materials. My current research is to engineer a photosynthetic organism to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water. I’m also interested in DNA sequencing and synthesis, foundational synthetic biology, and computational systems biology: the combination of software and “wetware”.
Publications
- Hall AR, Scott A, Rotem D, Mehta KK, Bayley H, and Dekker C. Hybrid pore formation by directed insertion of α-haemolysin into solid-state nanopores. Nat Nanotechnol. 2010 Dec;5(12):874-7. DOI:10.1038/nnano.2010.237 |
This paper describes the first device ever constructed by a fusion of a protein and inorganic nanopore. By supporting a protein nanopore with an inorganic substrate instead of a lipid membrane, we can exploit the precision and mutability of proteins without the fragility of lipid membranes.
- Purnell RF, Mehta KK, and Schmidt JJ. Nucleotide identification and orientation discrimination of DNA homopolymers immobilized in a protein nanopore. Nano Lett. 2008 Sep;8(9):3029-34. DOI:10.1021/nl802312f |
This paper contains some of the most sensitive electrical measurements ever made on DNA in a nanopore. With more precise measurements, we've definitively confirmed what others have suggested, that α-Hemolysin can tell the difference between the DNA nucleotides.
