Karen’s journey in science began with molecular biology, focusing on directed evolution of fluorescent proteins. After completing his PhD with Konstantine Lukyanov and Alexander Mishin, he moved to Fyodor Kondrashov’s lab to work on evolutionary biology, experimentally studying what defines protein evolution at a short time scale. His further work on bioluminescence led him to co-found Light Bio, a company that has created and successfully commercialised the world’s first ornamental glow-in-the-dark plants. Firefly Petunia, the first product of Light Bio, hit the US market earlier this year.

Since joining the LMS in 2018, Karen has been working on, among other things, designing proteins that enable plants to protect themselves from insects and nematodes.

Looking to the future, he envisions synthetic biology tools having a significant impact on our food production and human health. “The goal of our lab for the next few years is to equip plants with designer traits that protect them from essentially any pest in the field” he explains. Karen’s work at LMS extends beyond plant protection, focusing on protein design for medical applications.