Caroline Werlang

Caroline is a Ph.D. candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. In Katharina Ribbeck's lab, she studies how unique molecules in mucus can be leveraged as antivirulence therapeutics to fight infections while circumventing antibiotic resistance. Before coming to MIT, Caroline earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Caltech where she engineered proteins from soil bacteria with Frances Arnold. She then spent a year in Switzerland as a Fulbright Fellow, where she studied cell-free synthetic biology with Sebastian Maerkl at EPFL. Generally, Caroline is interested in understanding the mechanisms of environment- and community-dependent bacterial interactions to promote human health and sustainability.