Invited Talk – FAMU-FSU Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Haynes has been invited to present her lab’s latest work, “Engineering Chromatin-Based Systems for Programmable Control of Gene Expression,” as part of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (CBE) Department Seminar Series, on September 12, 2025, in Tallahassee, FL. This invitation is especially meaningful in that Dr. Haynes will be speaking at her undergraduate alma mater. She attended Florida A&M University from 1995 – 1999, was a member of the honors biology program that helped her to secure REU positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for two summers, was a member of the Venom Dancers competitive dance squad, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. Special thanks to Dr. Yimin Mao and Chynelle Bruce for organizing for organizing this visit!
New Member – Lauryn Piggatt
Lauryn Piggatt has joined the Haynes lab this fall as a PhD student in the Georgia Tech/ Emory Biomedical Engineering graduate program. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she earned her B.S. in Bioengineering from Rice University in 2025, where she was a QuestBridge Scholar (full scholarship), an active member of both AIChE and NSBE, and received an award at the fall 2024 NSBE regional conference. Lauryn first worked with our group as a Georgia Tech SURE R.E.U. student; her summer poster earned first place at the program symposium, and her work presented at AfroBiotech 2025 won the first-place poster prize. Welcome to the Haynes lab, Lauryn! We look forward to working with you.
Haynes Lab Research Featured at the 12th Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop
Recently at the the 12th International Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop (mSBW12) in Irvine, CA (August 11–12, 2025), Dr. Haynes delivered an invited talk, “Epigenetic Engineering at Scale: Synthetic lncRNAs and Chromatin Readers for Multi-Gene Regulation,” which included our progress with an lncRNA-based strategy for domain-level, multiplexed gene control, and highlighted our chromatin protein engineering work and its use in the 2025 Cold Spring Harbor Summer Course on Synthetic Biology. Dr. Shalley Sharma (Senior Research Specialist) presented an accepted-abstract poster, “Porting Refactored XIST Components from Mammals to Yeast for Programmable Epigenetic Silencing,” demonstrating a rapid, cross-kingdom testbed for programmable epigenetic repression. We are grateful to our collaborators and co-authors: Haynes Lab – Seong Hu Kim, Chloe Guerrero; Jones Lab (NYU) – Bryan Eusse, Dr. Alisha Jones; Smith Lab (UNCCH) Megan Kratz, Dr. Keriayn Smith. We extend sincere thanks to mSBW co-chairs Kyle Daniels and Leonardo Morsut for curating an amazing program and for convening the mammalian systems engineering community.
Poster: “Porting Refactored XIST Components from Mammals to Yeast for Programmable Epigenetic Silencing.” Sharma S* (1), Kim SH (1), Eusse B (2), Guerrero C (1), Kratz M (3), Smith K (3), Jones A (2), Haynes KA (1). (1) Emory University, Atlanta, GA; (2) New York University, New York, NY; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
Invited Talk – 2025 Keystone Symposium: Organoids
Dr. Haynes presented an invited talk, “Controlling Chromatin Epigenetics in 3D Breast Cancer Spheroids,” at the Keystone Symposium: Organoids – Engineering Innovative Approaches for Basic and Translational Insight, on May 14, 2025, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The presentation shared recent findings on synthetic reader-actuators (SRAs) that target polycomb-repressed chromatin and reprogram gene expression in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) spheroids. These results, published in GEN Biotechnology, demonstrate that SRAs can upregulate tumor suppressor genes and suppress invasion of cells from spheroids into the extracellular matrix. Special thanks to Dr. Quinton Smith, Dr. Matthias Lutolf, and Dr. Kelly R. Stevens for organizing a truly inspiring and multidisciplinary symposium that brought together leaders in organoid science, tissue engineering, and translational research.
Greg Wu: From Emory Honors to BU BME PhD
We’re thrilled to celebrate our former Emory undergraduate researcher, Yifei “Greg” Wu. Greg formally joined the lab in Summer 2023 and graduated with a B.S. in Biology in Spring 2025. On March 26, 2025, he successfully defended his honors thesis, “Investigating Histone Acetylation in Lipogenic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells using Cell Engineering and Bioinformatics,” earning High Honors. During his time with us, Greg co-authored two publications and was named to Emory’s Class of 2025 100 Senior Honorary in recognition of his academic excellence and leadership. We’re proud to share that Greg has now begun the next chapter of his scientific journey as a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Engineering program at Boston University. Congratulations, Greg! Thank you for your creativity, rigor, and teamwork. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish next!
Haynes Calls for Structural Change in Biotech Education and Innovation at 2025 DELL Conference
Dr. Haynes gave an oral presentation titled “Unfinished and Unequal: Rethinking Health Technologies Through a Decolonial Lens” at the 2025 Decolonial Education and Liberatory Learning (DELL) Conference, held at Bucknell University on March 29. As part of Panel 2: Imagining the Unimaginable: Decolonial Praxis and Wellbeing, the talk challenged dominant narratives for health disparities that frame race and gender as liabilities rather than indicators of scientific and technological inadequacy.
Dr. Haynes argued for a paradigm shift in biotechnology education, one that rejects the normalization of technologies like pulse oximeters and temperature sensors that fail to work reliably for people with highly melanated skin and textured hair, and therapeutics that are approved based on results from non-inclusive trials, and instead demands rigorously validated, fully functional technologies. Drawing from her recent review Inclusivity and Equity in Biotechnology: Insights from the AfroBiotech Conferences, she underscored the importance of setting a higher standard, one where technologies are only considered successful if they work effectively for everyone who needs them. Many thanks to the DELL organizers for curating this powerful forum for critical exchange on science, justice, and liberation.
Invited Talk – 2025 AfroBiotech Conference
Dr. Haynes presented an invited talk, “An Engineered Genetic Reporter Reveals How Adipocytes Change the Epigenetic State of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells,” for the 5th AfroBiotech Conference on February 17, 2025 in Atlanta, GA. The talk highlighted exciting new data linking changes in metabolism to changes in epigenetic states, which were presented as a poster by PhD student Ashley Townsel. These presentations included data from our bioRxiv pre-print “Tet Transgene Activation is Disrupted in Lipogenic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells.” Special thanks to Co-Chairs Dr. Simone Douglas-Green, Dr. Jamal Lewis, and Dr. Monet Roberts, as well as the AfroBiotechCommittee for organizing this fantastic event!
Poster: “Adipocyte Signaling Induces Widespread Epigenetic Repression in TNBC Cells.” Ashley Townsel* (1), Yifei Wu (2), Maya Jaffe (2), Cara Shields (2), Karmella A. Haynes (1,2) Department of Biology and (2) Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Methods – Building Synthetic Long Non-Coding RNAs via Iterative Golden Gate Assembly of K-mer Arrays
Building Synthetic Long Non-Coding RNAs via Iterative Golden Gate Assembly of K-mer Arrays
Kim SH, Guerrero C, Haynes KA. (2025) bioRviv.
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.8epv52bxjv1b/v1
Golden Gate assembly has been indispensable for building synthetic genes and hybrid open reading frames that encode fusion proteins in order to learn how gene and protein sub-parts can work in combination. So far, this approach has not been used very widely to design, build, and study long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). In our newest protocol, we describe a Golden Gate-based method to assemble short lncRNA-derived fragments of k-length (k-mers) into arrays. These synthetic lncRNAs can be expressed in vitro or in living cells to study their structure and function, leading to insights into the mechanisms of natural lncRNAs.
Greg Wu Selected for Emory 100 Senior Honorary 2025
Congratulations to Greg Wu who was accepted for the Emory class of 2025 100 Senior Honorary as an outstanding graduate and alumni for achievements in academics and leadership! The Emory 100 Senior Honorary award recognizes exceptional graduating seniors from Emory’s undergraduate schools for their achievements in academics, leadership, volunteerism, and other areas. Honorees are selected for their commitment to their interests, impactful contributions to the Emory community, and dedication to staying connected as alumni. They are charged with serving as alumni leaders, mentoring students, and engaging with the university through admissions, reunions, and leadership boards.
Book Chapter – The Epigenetic Landscape of Breast Cancer, Metabolism, and Obesity
The Epigenetic Landscape of Breast Cancer, Metabolism, and Obesity.
Townsel A, Jaffe M, Wu Y, Henry CJ, Haynes KA. (2024) The Epigenetic Landscape of Breast Cancer, Metabolism, and Obesity. Adv Exp Med Biol. pp 37-53
PMID: 39586992
Obesity increases the risk of breast cancer and raises mortality rates in affected patients. This connection is driven by various factors, particularly changes in the epigenetic state of breast cancer cells, which affect survival, metastasis, and treatment responses. Recent studies have explored the relationship between the physical and biochemical structure of chromosomes inside breast cancer cells (the epigenome), and the biochemical environment outside of cancer cells that is unique to people with obesity. This chapter discusses how obesity affects the epigenome of breast cancer cells, as well as its impact on the effectiveness of chemotherapy and the emergence of drug-resistant cancer cells. Understanding these relationships could help to develop better treatment strategies for patients with obesity and cancer.
Epigenetic Control Systems Engineering 