Christina Smolke

An Associate Professor of Bioengineering and of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and leader of the Smolke Lab, Christina Smolke is one of the spearheads in the young field of synthetic biology. Making use of advances in chemistry, biology and technology, synthetic biology designs biological systems that do not yet exist in the natural world. By engineering yeast to synthesize opioid drugs, she aims at making pain medicine more available in developing countries. Her breakthrough could lead to much faster and cheaper drug production and could bring on an age of more affordable medicine.