The Master of Biotechnology Program draws its faculty from Penn’s Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Computer and Information Science, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering Departments.
Program Director: Dr. Bomyi Lim
Honors and Awards: – NIH F32 Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award – 2016-2017, – Princeton University Best Postdoc Presentation Award at the Molecular Biology Retreat – 2016, – Princeton University Art of Science Competition – 2014, 2017, – Princeton University Air Products Assistant in Instruction Award – 2012, – Princeton University Francis Robbins Upton Fellowship in Engineering – 2010 – 2014
Research Expertise: Biomolecular Engineering | Cellular and Molecular Imaging | Biophysics
Bomyi is interested in regulation of chemical kinetics in biological systems, especially in understanding how inherently stochastic gene expression dynamics are “tamed” to produce reliable cellular outcomes. A precise control of dynamic gene activity is important in preventing mis-regulation that could cause serious developmental defects. The lab uses combination of molecular experiments, quantitative live imaging, kinetic modeling and other fundamental engineering principles to obtain spatio-temporal control of gene activity. These interdisciplinary studies will provide important insights to general gene-expression phenomena that underlie development, metabolism, and disease.
Education:
BSE Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 2010 – University of Pennsylvania
PhD Chemical and Biological Engineering 2015 – Princeton University
Recent Publications 
- Temporal dynamics of pair-rule stripes in living Drosophila embryos, Lim, B. | Fukaya, T. | Heist, T. | Levine, M., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018
- Imaging transcriptional dynamics, Lim, B., Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 2018
- Visualization of Transvection in Living Drosophila Embryos, Lim, B. | Heist, T. | Levine, M. | Fukaya, T., Molecular Cell, 2018
- Synthesizing developmental trajectories, Villoutreix, P. | Andén, J. | Lim, B. | Lu, H. | Kevrekidis, I.G. | Singer, A. | Shvartsman, S.Y., PLoS Computational Biology, 2017
- A novel function for the iκB inhibitor cactus in promoting dorsal nuclear localization and activity in the Drosophila embryo, Cardoso, M.A. | Fontenele, M. | Lim, B. | Bisch, P.M. | Shvartsman, S.Y. | Araujo, H.M., Development (Cambridge), 2017