He did his PhD in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Engineering, and postdoctoral work at the Center for BioDynamics at Boston University, with James Collins and Nancy Kopell. His research combines experimental and theoretical techniques to study systematic methods of controlling cellular behaviour, and ways of putting cells to work to create low-cost solutions to real-world problems. Examples of applied projects include efforts at developing systems to: detect disease microorganisms and respond to counter them; create microorganism-based biosensors for disease diagnosis; and designing a probiotic to help those suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases.