Rate My Professor Kimberly Reynolds

The Reynolds Lab employs statistical analysis, comparative genomics, and high-throughput epistasis experiments to explore the architecture and evolution of cellular systems, with emphasis on central metabolism and structures like the bacterial flagellum. Using Escherichia coli as a model organism, the lab generates mutation libraries to quantify impacts on growth and develops predictive models linking genotype to phenotype. These efforts support antibiotic discovery, metabolic pathway engineering, microbial evolution studies, and frameworks for complex organisms including humans. Key publications include "The genetic landscape of a metabolic interaction" (Nature Communications, 2024), "A continuous epistasis model for predicting growth rate given combinatorial variation in gene expression and environment" (Cell Systems, 2024), "Structurally distributed surface sites tune allosteric regulation" (eLife, 2021), and "Considering metabolic context in enzyme evolution and design" (Biochemistry, 2025). Reynolds has received the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Data-Driven Discovery Investigator Award (2014), NSF CAREER Award (2020), UT Southwestern Outstanding Graduate Educator Award (2020), and Biophysical Society Biopolymers-in-Vivo Young Faculty Award (2022). She contributes to graduate education through steering committees, admissions panels, and mentoring on 19 thesis committees.