April Lukowski is a biochemist whose research focuses on enzyme discovery and applications to sustainable chemical synthesis. Her research is interdisciplinary and uses methods in enzymology, synthetic biology, chemical analysis, and bioinformatics to understand how natural products, particularly toxins, are made by marine organisms step-by-step. Using the enzymes she characterizes, Lukowski assesses the breadth of their potential for targeted applications in chemical synthesis and medicinal chemistry as biocatalysts. Her recent work reported on the discovery and characterization of a family of marine cyanobacterial halogenases capable of selectively and efficiently installing bromine and iodine onto alkynes, resulting in a new tool for sustainably producing halogenated molecules. Lukowski completed her Ph.D. in chemical biology at the University of Michigan in 2020, and joined Scripps that same year as a postdoctoral scholar. She joined Scripps as an Assistant Professor in October 2023 as a joint appointment between Scripps and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.