Michael Guarnieri

Chemical and Biological Engineering Affiliate Faculty

Dr. Michael Guarnieri is a Principal Investigator at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a Fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), and an Affiliate Faculty member in the Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Guarnieri’s research targets diverse biotechnological applications, spanning bioenergy, bioremediation, and biosecurity, via the development and deployment of molecular systems biology approaches. Dr. Guarnieri leads a diverse bioenergy research project portfolio that includes multi- institutional, DOE-Biological and Environmental Research (BER)-supported projects aimed at development of microbial bioproduction consortia and development of secure biocontainment designs, and several DOE-Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO)-supported projects targeting applied microbial biocatalyst development. These projects have led to the development of an array of microbial metabolic engineering and genomic tools and generated a series of first-in-class biocatalysts with diverse biotechnological applications in bioenergy and bioremediation.

Dr. Guarnieri earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where his research focused on protein crystallography and structure-guided drug design. Prior to his graduate studies, conducted undergraduate research at Brown University, examining viral secretion and virus-host interactions.