Meet Postdoctoral scholar Dr. Rishi Jajoo who conducts research in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Rishi is re-engineering the mitochondrial genetic code to produce new proteins with functions not found in nature. He is also planning to speed the evolution of mitochondrial DNA to allow evolution to draw on that increased number of building blocks to produce new proteins that could be used as novel therapeutics, or for fuels or biomaterials. In recognition of this promising research, Rishi was recently awarded a three-year postdoctoral fellowship by the Jane Coffin Childs (JCC) Memorial Fund. Rishi earned his Ph.D. in 2015 at Harvard University; he worked with Johan Paulsson studying the control of mitochondrial DNA copy number, yeast polarity and RNA polymerase dynamics. He received an A.B. in physics at Harvard College in 2007.