Faculty Profile

Kevin V. Solomon

Thomas & Kipp Gutshall Career Development Associate Professor

Education

Doctorate – 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Masters – 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bachelors – 2006 McMaster University, Canada

About Kevin V. Solomon

Mircoorganisms are among the most innovative chemists, catalyzing powerful chemistries at ambient conditions with high specificity. With emerging techniques from systems and synthetic biology, my lab characterizes and harnesses these capabilities to address grand challenges in sustainability, human health, and food safety. We also create novel synthetic biology tools via protein and genetic engineering to accelerate development of these platforms for industry.

Current areas of interest include:

lignocellulosic bioenergy and sustainable small molecule production
biotemplated nanomaterial synthesis
whole cell biosensors
medical diagnostics and novel gene editing technologies

Select Publications

For a complete listing of publications, please view the Full CV.

AA Stepnov, E Lopez Tavera, RR Klauer, CL Lincoln, RR Chowreddy, GT Beckham, VGH Eijsing, KV Solomon, MA Blenner*, G Vaaje-Kolstad*, Revisiting the activity of two poly(vinyl chloride)- and polyethylene-degrading enzymes, Nature Comm, 15: 8501 (2024)
RR Klauer, DA Hansen‡, D Wu‡, LM Oliveira Monteiro‡, KV Solomon*, MA Blenner*, Biological Upcycling of Plastic Waste, Ann Rev Chem Bio Eng, 15: 14.1-14.28 (2024).
B Graver, N Chakravarty, KV Solomon*, Prokaryotic argonautes for in vivo biotechnology and molecular diagnostics, Trends in Biotechnology, 42 (1): 61-73 (2024)
AJ Vaidya, M Rammohan, YH Lee, KZ Lee, CY Chou, Z Hartley, CA Scott, RG Susler, L Wang, LS Loesch-Fries, MT Harris, KV Solomon*, Engineering Alkaline-Stable Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus-Like Particles for Efficient Surface Modification, Biochemical Engineering Journal, 199: 109062 (2023)
C Hooker, R Hanafy, ET Hillman, J Muñoz, KV Solomon*, A genetic engineering toolbox for the lignocellulolytic anaerobic gut fungus Neocallimastix frontalis, ACS Synthetic Biology, 12 (4): 1034-1045 (2023)
AJ Vaidya, KV Solomon*, Surface Functionalization of Rod Shaped Viral-Like Particles for Biomedical Applications, ACS Applied Bio Materials, 5 (5): 1980-1989 (2022)
KZ Lee, MA Mechikoff, MK Parasa, T Rankin, P Pandolfi, K Fitzgerald, E Hillman, KV Solomon*, Repurposing the homing endonuclease I-SceI for positive selection and development of gene editing technologies, ACS Syn Biol, 11 (1): 53-60 (2022)
KZ Lee, MA Mechikoff, A Kikla, A Liu, P Pandolfi, K Fitzgerald, F Gimble, KV Solomon*, NgAgo possesses guided DNA nicking activity, Nucleic Acids Research, 49 (17): 9926-9937 (2021)
ET Hillman, M Li, CA Hooker, J Englaender, IR Wheeldon, KV Solomon*, Hydrolysis of lignocellulose by anaerobic fungi produces free sugars and organic acids for two-stage fine chemical production with Kluyveromyces marxianus, Biotechnology Progress, 37 (5): e3172 (2021)
KV Solomon, CH Haitjema, JK Henske, SP Gilmore, D Borges-Rivera, A Lipzen, HM Brewer, SO Purvine, AT Wright, MK Theodorou, IV Grigoriev, A Regev, DA Thompson, MA O’Malley*. Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass degrading enzymes. Science, 351 (6278): 1192 – 1195, (2016).

Patents (h3)

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Awards

For a complete listing of awards, please view the Full CV.

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers (PECASE) (2025)
AIChE Division 15 Early Career Award (2023)
ACS BIOT Young Investigator Award (2023)
Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award (NOBCChE) (2023)
Microorganisms Young Investigator Award (2022)
Invited Speaker at National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2022 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Seattle, WA (2022)
SIMB Early Career Award (2022)
NSF CAREER Award (2022)
US Department of Energy Early Career Award (2019)
Congressional testimony before the 116th US Congress (2019)