The Official Laboratory Sponsor of Texas iGEM Team
A real biosafety lab, made possible at University of Houston.
Hands-on wet-lab work is the heart of iGEM - and it is exactly what high school teams struggle most to access. Through the support of Dr. Kumaraswamy Naidu Chitrala, Texas iGEM Collective students conduct their 2026 research in a Biosafety Level laboratory at the University of Houston, under faculty oversight and full biosafety, chemical-safety, and institutional training requirements.
Dr. Kumaraswamy Naidu Chitrala
The PEOPLE who made it happen
Faculty Mentor & Lab Host
Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Technology Cullen College of Engineering
Dr. Chitrala generously made supervised laboratory space available at the University of Houston so that Texas iGEM students could carry out real synthetic biology research. A computational and experimental biologist, his work spans bioinformatics, computational biology, statistical genetics, epigenetics, cancer biology, cancer health disparities, and machine learning - bringing both bench science and data science to the team's mentorship. He serves as Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology, with joint appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering, and as Clinical Assistant Professor at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. Before joining the University of Houston, he was Head of the Bioinformatics Core at Temple University's Fels Cancer Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH National Institute on Aging.
Dr. Heidar Malki, Ph.D.
Faculty Support & Department leadership
Senior Associate Dean
Technology Division, Cullen College of Engineering
Avicenna Professor, Department of Engineering Technology
Dr. Malki is Senior Associate Dean of the Technology Division at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering and the Avicenna Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology, with a joint appointment in Electrical & Computer Engineering. As senior leadership in the department that hosts Texas iGEM's laboratory work, his support helps make supervised University of Houston lab access possible for our students - the institutional backing behind the hands-on mentorship Dr. Chitrala provides at the bench.
Lab access is the hardest part of iGEM and the most important.
WHY THIS MATTERS
iGEM is built around original, hypothesis-driven research carried out in a real laboratory. Most high school teams never get there: they lack the facilities, the safety infrastructure, and faculty willing to supervise minors in a working lab. Securing supervised BSL space is what turns an idea on paper into engineered biology.
Hands-on, not hypothetical
Students design, build, and test their constructs at the bench — the genuine iGEM experience, not a simulation or a poster-only project.
Safety done right
Work proceeds under UH biosafety, chemical-safety, and institutional policies, with required training, supervision, and faculty oversight at every step.
Access for every student
Our mission is opening this pathway to students whose schools have no lab, no iGEM program, and no route into competitive research.