Commercializing ready-to-eat (RTE) format of cultivated salmon accessible beyond premium market.

Process design & tech-transfer, aroma-tastant systems (flavorist, analytical, cell-driven approaches), characterization & assay development (simplified models to final builds), shelf-life quality & packaging, strategic ingredients & continuous improvement (supply chain, labeling, nutrition, regulatory), sensory & consumer insights program, 3D-hardware & biointerface integration, form-factor aesthetics & user experience.

Wildtype is on a mission to create the cleanest, high-value salmon-derived biomanufactured goods on earth, from sushi-grade salmon and RTE smoked lox to bioactive cosmetic ingredients. Pioneering world's first FDA-approved cultivated seafood. Employee size ~80-100 (Series B)

Ingredient-system discovery for scaffolding, salmon flavor biogenesis, lipid-fiber structuring & rational product design. Strong emphasis on structure-function-performance of composite ingredients, and consumer perceptual processing of tissue-engineered products to establish the next multi-component assembly line.

Pushing new frontiers in emulsions & dispersions, encapsulation delivery systems, and food soft matter processing for consumer health, medical nutrition, alternative proteins, and next-gen composite ingredients.

• Designed and performed experiments using toolbox across food physics, protein biochemistry, colloids & interfaces, and soft matter, from fabrication to characterization, independently and collaboratively under senior member mentorship.

• Established written SOPs and customized assays for TA DHR2 rheometer, Allevi 3D bioprinter, and compression texture analyzer, training departmental users.

• Managed individual and collaborative research projects, contributing to manuscript writing, grant application, and provisional patent submission.

• Initiated preliminary research studies on structure-function properties of multiphasic plant-based ingredient systems, enabling projects of 3 undergraduate researchers and supporting postdocs on advanced methods in oral tribology & fractal analysis.

Analytical: rheology (SAOS, viscometry, DMA, creep, tribology), microscopy (confocal, light, SEM, AFM), scattering (DLS, SLS, Turbiscan, Krus foam analyzer), spectroscopy (FT-IR, UV-Vis, DWS), thermodynamics (DSC, TGA, ITC), chromatography (SEC-HPLC, GC, SDS/native-PAGE), protein & lipid oxidation kit assays.

Projects:

1. Jamming Plant Protein into Colloidal Microgels via pH-Temperature Route for Extrusion 3D Printing (Honors College, USDA-NIFA, GFI, Royal Avebe, 2022).

2. Shear-induced Liquid-liquid Phase-separated Composite for Seafood Analogs (USDA-NIFA, GFI, 2020-2021).

3. Protein Denaturation, Mobility, and Textural Changes in Model Salmon Tissues during Cooking (GFI, USDA, 2020)

4. Biofilm-coated Probiotics in Consumer Health Products (NSF I-Corps & Ideation Foods, 2020)

5. W/O/W Double Emulsion System of Anthocyanin Encapsulated by Crystalline Lipid Phase (USDA-NIFA, Pepsico, 2019).

Advancing current research projects pertaining to food systems, environment, and agriculture to promote sustainable planetary & human health.

Oral & poster presentations:

• Elsevier 2nd NIZO Plant Protein Functionalities, The Netherlands.

• Polymer & Soft Matter Symposium Fall 2022, Amherst MA.

• Society of Food Engineering, Raleigh NC.

• CAFE Summer Research, Amherst MA.