Peter Q. Nguyen

Peter Q. Nguyen is a senior staff scientist at Harvard University's Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering. In Nguyen’s postdoctoral work at Harvard University, he has conceived, designed, and fully developed a technology platform BIND (Biofilm-Integrated Nanofiber Display) that allows for the re-engineering of the bacterial bioflm extracellular material to have programmed artificial functions. These "Engineered Living Materials" establish living systems as biological self-replicating nanomaterials factories. Nguyen’s other work as a Wyss Technology Development Fellow has centered on the development of freeze-dried cell-free technology to incorporate synthetic biology into various technologies and materials in a shelf-stable format. This "just-add-water" format allows complex biological circuits to be implemented in a portable, low-cost, and inexpensive manner. His prior thesis work at Rice University centered on the design of synthetic protein switches that operated in hyperthermophilic organisms for detecting protein-protein interactions. Nguyen’s other research interests include novel 3D printing materials, using biofilm-derived materials for architectural and textile technologies, phage display, synthetic cells, and developing amyloid therapeutics.