PEOPLE

Hello! I am Jacob Risch, a Ph.D. student in the Genetics and Genomics program here at Texas A&M.

While I was a student at UT Austin, I read an article in the school paper about researchers using RNA interference in bee gut microbes to protect honey bees against Varroa mites. I was fascinated and tried to work in that lab, but almost immediately after interviewing with them, COVID hit. Fortunately, a lab was taking on students to participate in the school's International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) team, and I was able to learn the ropes of experimental research in a project where we modified and tested PETase. Afterwards I stayed in the lab, which fortunately also participated in the bee research I had read about; I was able to work on an RNAi-inducing cassette for the bee gut microbe S. alvi shortly before graduating with a B.S. in Computational Biology.

After graduating, I worked at Ginkgo Bioworks in Cambridge, MA for two years as a high-throughput transformations specialist. I worked closely with teams that had to optimize fermentative processes, and I became fascinated with questions regarding how microbes compete in microcommunities, how they establish their niches, and how we can engineer microbes that can do what we want without evolving away from our designs. Realizing I wanted to become an expert in these questions, I decided to leave Boston, come home to Texas, and continue my studies. I was fortunate to discover Dr. Motta at A&M, whose lab investigates the same bees that fascinated me in undergrad.

Outside of the lab, I am an avid cyclist and bike mechanic, and I also enjoy reading Wikipedia articles and playing video games.