Ahmed H. Badran is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at the Scripps Research Institute. Badran’s research leverages the programmability of biological systems and uncovers next-generation strategies to address pressing global problems.

Badran’s major research interests include engineering and deployment of carbon-capturing enzymes to address climate change; discovery and optimization of pathogen-specific antimicrobials to curb widespread bacterial resistance; development of new-to-nature catalysts that bridge the scope of synthetic chemistry transformations with programmability of biology; and pioneering novel bioactive modalities to therapeutically intervene in diverse disease states.

Badran earned his B.Sc. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Harvard University, Badran developed high-throughput strategies to evolve proteins with improved or altered activities. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2016, he started his independent career as part of the first class of Fellows of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. There, his group developed new technologies to alter protein translation and expand the genetic code of cells.

Badran’s research and accomplishments have earned distinctions, including the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, COCB Dream Chemistry Award Finalist, RCSA Scialog Negative Emission Science Award, Air Force Young Investigator Award, J-WAFS Water and Food Grand Challenge Award, FFAR New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award, and Breakthrough Energy Fellow Explorer Award.