Dr. Matthew Good received a PhD in Biochemistry from UCSF in 2010, working in the synthetic biology lab of Prof. Wendell Lim on organizing principles that underlie cell signaling (Good et al, Cell 2009). As a Miller Fellow at Berkeley from 2010-2014, he developed a synthetic cell-like system by encapsulating cell-free cytoplasmic extract to reconstitute cell division and organelle assembly ex vivo (Good et al, Science 2013). Dr. Good began an independent research lab at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 with a primary appointment in the department of Cell and Developmental Biology and a secondary appointment in department of Bioengineering.

The Good lab is interested in fundamental rules that govern subcellular organization and the assembly of membraneless organelles, with a focus on the functions of protein condensates in biochemical compartmentalization. The lab is also particularly interested in bottom-up construction of synthetic cells or protocells. Over the past decade, they have developed alternative amphiphiles to form durable, dynamic membranes, optochemical patterning tools, phase separating materials and strategies for microfluidic encapsulation of undiluted cytoplasm. The goal of the lab is to build simplified cell-replacement systems and to augment the function of living cells for applications in regenerative medicine.

Prof. Good is a member of the Penn Institute of Regenerative Medicine (IRM), Penn Center for Genome Integrity (PCGI) and Pennsylvania Muscle Institute (PMI). Since 2023, he has co-led the Interdisciplinary Research Group 2 as part of the NSF-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Penn and is a member of the board of directors for the International Xenopus Committee. His awards include a Miller Fellow Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, McCabe Fund Fellow Award, Charles E. Kaufman New Investigator award, and March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Scholar Award.