Carolyn Mills

Biography

Dr. Carolyn Mills (she/they) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Carolyn’s research at UCSB focuses on molecular engineering of proteins that control spatial organization in biological systems, with applications in plastic remediation and oral vaccine delivery. Carolyn completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2013 at UCSB, where she carried out research using atomistic simulations to study peptide self-assembly with Professor M. Scott Shell. Carolyn received her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2019 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in Professor Bradley Olsen’s lab on self-assembly and high-throughput processing of fusion protein materials. During her PhD, Carolyn was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and recognized as a finalist in the Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research session at the AIChE National Meeting in 2018. Carolyn completed her postdoctoral work with Professor Danielle Tullman-Ercek at Northwestern University, researching self-assembling protein nanoreactors with a focus on how they can benefit metabolic engineering applications.During her time at Northwestern, she organized the inaugural Context, Community, and Connections Symposium (C3S) to highlight the research accomplishments of those holding underrepresented identities in Northwestern’s chemical engineering, chemistry, and materials science research communities. Carolyn’s work on the C3S was recognized by the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Service Award.

Research

The Mills lab is focused on the study and engineering of protein assemblies to address challenges in plastic waste remediation, biological liquid-liquid phase separation, and oral vaccine development. Leveraging combined expertise in protein engineering, soft matter, and synthetic biology, we aim to engineer microbial and biomolecular solutions to pressing global challenges that are low-cost and accessible.