Asher J Williams, PhD

Asher Williams, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University and an affiliate of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. She is a member of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). Dr. Williams develops molecular engineering strategies to understand and manipulate protein–glycan interactions for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Her research integrates protein engineering, glycobiology, and synthetic biology to develop new approaches for targeting disease-associated glycans in cancer, infectious disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. Her laboratory designs engineered lectins, glycan-binding proteins, and glycan-targeted nanobody conjugates to probe and modulate glycan-mediated biological processes. The lab also develops cell-free biosynthetic platforms for producing glycoconjugate vaccines and other glycan-based therapeutics. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completed her postdoctoral training in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University.