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 in Bioengineering. After that, I spent a year (2008-2009) doing research with Hagan Bayley in Oxford. Right now I'm in my third year as a PhD student in Bioengineering at Stanford. After finishing the PhD, I plan to work in a small biotechnology company. At some point in my career I also want to work in a teaching capacity, perhaps at a liberal arts college or community college.
Outside of work, I enjoy landscape/architecture photography and music. Last year I played the violin in the pit orchestra for one of Stanford’s theatrical production societies, as well as a more conventional symphony orchestra. I also very much enjoy traveling, and try to see new places whenever I can.
Download a copy of my CV (Updated in March 2011).
Contact Info
Physical address:
Stanford University
Department of Chemical Engineering
Keck 155
Stanford, CA 94305
kkmehta {at} stanford
949.636.4345
Education
- 2010, MSc, University of Oxford
- 2008, BS, University of California, Los Angeles
Research interests
My general interest is in employing biological structures and processes in engineered systems to enable the production of industrial chemicals by environmentally sustainable methods. My current project involves developing and characterizing a system of proteins that could be used to produce molecular hydrogen in cyanobacteria, in the Swartz group at Stanford. I’m also interested in physics and engineering applications related to membrane proteins, and single-molecule DNA sequencing technologies.
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.
