August 4, 2026 Dr. Roberto Cafferri, Postdoctoral Researcher in Professor Roberto Bassi’s lab at the University of Verona, Italy is visiting the Ennist lab for six weeks until September 16. He is working on designing new light-harvesting proteins to investigate chlorophyll-carotenoid interactions.

July 26, 2026 Dr. Nathan Ennist delivered a keynote address entitled “Design of new proteins for enhanced photosynthesis using deep learning” with Dr. David Baker (U Washington) at the International Society of Photosynthesis Research International Conference on Photosynthesis Research (ICPR26) in Liverpool, UK (full abstract book can be accessed here).

July 17, 2026 Lab Member Camila Lewton has been awarded a position with the CMI Honors Research Pathways Scholars Program for her project entitled “De novo design of oxygen transport systems.” She will conduct her year-long research collaboratively under the mentorship of current Lab Members Derek Wei, Jesse Granstrom and Rene Ganoe, culminating in the presentation of her work at the CMI Annual Summit in August, 2027.

June 23, 2026 Lab Member Dr. Derek Wei has been awarded a Simons Postdoctoral Fellowship in Plant Biology (link).

February 25, 2026 Dr. Nathan Ennist interviewed by CALS News (link).

August 12, 2025 Dr. Nathan Ennist was welcomed to NC State as Assistant Professor with joint appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the College Of Sciences and the Molecular and Structural Biochemistry Department of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (link).

July 2, 2025 Dr. Nathan Ennist was interviewed by The Economist for an article (pdf) entitled “AI is helping to design proteins from scratch” while at the University of Seattle and a member of Dr. David Baker’s Lab at the Institute for Protein Design (link).