Faculty Profile
Mark A. Blenner
Thomas & Kipp Gutshall Career Development Professor
Associate Department Chair
Education
- Post-Doctorate – 2012 Harvard Medical School
- Doctorate – 2009 Columbia University
- Bachelors – 2004 Manhattan College
About Mark A. Blenner
My lab, the Cellular Engineering and Applied Synthetic Biology laboratory, combines synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, protein engineering, and systems biology to discover and engineer biological systems that add value to the bioeconomy. This value may come in the form of new products, making incumbent products more efficiently, degradation or management of wastes and pollutants, and the development of biological sensing mechanisms.
My group has demonstrated leadership in four main focus areas: (1) Biochemical Production in Microbial Systems, (2) Engineering Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Systems, (3) Biological Innovations for Plastic Waste, and (4) Biological Sensor Development.
We are currently focused on ways to engineer cells to manage the challenges of bioprocess scale up and deployment, as well as using synthetic biology to create next generation therapeutics.
I am also the PI of the CREATE Biofoundry, whose mission is centered on enabling more rapid translation of biotechnology innovations to practical use. We work with researchers and companies design and execute projects where synthetic biology can significantly enhance progress and knowledge. You can learn more about our biofoundry at CREATEBiofoundries.org.
Select Publications
For a complete listing of publications, please visit the Blenner Lab webpage.
- Somasundaram, S., Agrawal, A., Gitman, P., Spagnuolo, M., Blenner, M.* “Peroxisome engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for fatty alcohol production” Biotechnology & Bioengineering. e70166 (2026)
- Worland, A. M., Xu, V., Duran, M. F., Gitman, P., Hunter-Cevera, K., Klemm, C., Sun, Y., Sanchis, D. R., Ledesma-Amaro, R., Pomraning, K. R., Tanjore, D., Blenner, M.*, Tang, Y. J.* “Staying Productive Under Pressure: Systems Evaluations of β-carotene Production in Yarrowia lipolytica under continuous fermentation” Trends in Biotechnology 44(1):154-169 (2026)
- Stohr, A., Hansen, H., Richards, B., Park, H., Goncalves, A., Agrawal, A., Blenner, M.*, Chen, W.*, “Metabolite-responsive scaffold RNAs for dynamic CRISPR transcriptional regulation” Nucleic Acids Research 53(21):gfak1290 (2025)
- Agrawal, A.ǂ, Yang, Z.ǂ, Blenner, M.* “Metabolic Engineering of geraniol production in Yarrowia lipolytica” Metabolic Engineering Communications 17:e00228 (2023)
- Ganesan, V., Monteiro, L., Pedada, D., Stohr, A., Blenner, M.* “High-efficiency multiplexed cytosine base editors for natural product biosynthesis in Yarrowia lipolytica” ACS Synthetic Biology 12:10 3082-3091 (2023)
- Wang, W., Dasetty, S., Sarupria, S., Blenner, M.* “Rational engineering of low temperature activity in thermoalkalophilic Geobacillus thermocatenulatus lipase”. Biochemical Engineering Journal 174:108093 (2021)
- Schwartz, C., Cheng, JF., Evans, R., Schwartz, CA., Wagner, JM., Anglin, S., Beitz, A., Pan, W., Lonardi, S., Blenner, M., Alper, H., Yoshikuni, Y., Wheeldon, I.* “Validating genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 function improves screening in the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica” Metabolic Engineering 55:9 102-110 (2019)
- Fu, Q., Wang, Y., Doleh, E., Blenner, M.*, Yoon, S.* “Development of an inducible stable producer cell line for rAAV production” Biochemical Engineering Journal. 230:110144 (2026)
- Grissom, S., Dixon, Z., Singh, A., and Blenner, M.* “MemorySeq identifies heritable epigenetic phenotypes that initiate cell culture stress tolerance in CHO cells” iScience 28(10):113478 (2025)
- Rives, D., Richbourg, T., Gurtler, S., Martone, J., Blenner, M.* “Recent Advances in Engineering the Unfolded Protein Response in Recombinant CHO Cell Lines” International Journal for Molecular Sciences 26(15):7189 (2025)
Patents (h3)
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Awards
For a complete listing of awards, please view the Full CV.
- AIChE Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Division Early Career Award: 2022
- Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award: 2022
- ACS BIOT Young Investigator Award: 2021
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers (PECASE): 2019
- South Carolina Governor’s Young Scientist Award for Excellence in Scientific Research: 2020
- Junior Researcher of the Year, Clemson University: 2019
- DARPA Young Faculty Award: 2020
- NIH Outstanding Investigator Award: 2019
- NASA Early Career Faculty Award: 2015
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Young Investigator Award: 2015
Research Areas
Metabolic, Protein, and Genetic Engineering; Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Systems Biology, Biomanufacturing, Biosensing, Cellular Stress Response, Genetic & Phenotype Stability
