Dr. Anne Skaja Robinson
Trustee Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering
- A221 Doherty Hall
A221 Doherty Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Education
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 1988
- M.S., Chemical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 1989
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994
Bio
Anne Skaja Robinson is Trustee Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She served as department head from 2018 through 2023. Robinson was the Catherine and Henry Boh Professor in Engineering and Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University from 2012 to 2018. She has several patents and over 85 publications in the areas of protein (re)folding and aggregation, protein biophysics, and protein expression of therapeutically relevant protein molecules, and has graduated 23 Ph.D. students to date. Prior to joining Tulane in 2012, Dr. Robinson was a full professor and associate chair at the University of Delaware, where she started her academic career in 1997. Her honors include a DuPont Young Professor Award, a National Science Foundation Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE) Award, and she is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Robinson has been a member of AIChE since 1989 and has been actively involved in the AIChE and American Chemical Society for her entire career. From 2015-2017, she served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She chaired the ECI Cell Culture Engineering Meeting XVI in Tampa, Florida. She is on the advisory board of Biotechnology and Bioengineering and the editorial board of Biotechnology Journal and has been an ad hoc reviewer for many NIH and NSF study sections. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Food and Drug Administration.
Research
The Robinson Laboratory is interested in understanding the fundamental interactions between molecules, both in isolation and in the complex environment of the cell. We are investigating the determinants of protein folding and misfolding and have developed several novel approaches to inhibit protein misfolding and aggregation. This research has applications for “difficult-to-express” proteins, such as G-protein coupled receptors, and for control of production of biotherapeutics, such as antibodies. We have recently begun to use machine learning approaches to understand and improve analytical approaches to producing gene therapy vectors, including AAVs. We also study cellular interactions that lead to aggregation and transmission of pathogenic tau protein, which is relevant to Alzheimer’s disease, and several other neurodegenerative diseases including corticobasal degeneration.
Research Interests: biotechnology and pharmaceutical engineering, neurodegeneration and tau pathology, antibody and AAV production
Awards and Recognitions
- A member of AIChE since 1989
- Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2015-2017
- Chaired the ECI Cell Culture Engineering Meeting XVI in Tampa, Florida
- A member of the Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Food and Drug Administration