Walker Symonds-Orr

Walker joined the Dolan Lab winter 2023, just in time to see the cherry blossoms in DC. Before coming to the East Coast, he studied molecular evolution in the charismatic Mimulus monkeyflower under Dr. Arielle Cooley at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

He is interested in molecular evolution and synthetic biology from two angles; first, how can bioengineers use evolution as a creative tool; and second, how can biotechnologists enable evolutionary experimentation in systems that were previously resistant to these approaches?

His current project focuses on using Deep Mutational Scanning in Enterovirus A-71 both to gain insight into constraints on the evolution of its proteins and to generate tools, like epitope-tagged and fluorescently-labeled viruses, that will be useful to others in the field.

Outside of work, he enjoys craft projects of all manner.