Tony Dean (EEB/BTI) recently accepted a part-time post at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, where he will set up a second research lab in addition to his current lab at the University of Minnesota. Here, he talks about the excitement and adventure of moving to China, along with some of the challenges he will face.
Romas Kazlauskas brings experience from World Class University Project home to Minnesota
This summer Romas Kazlauskas (BTI/ Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) completed a 5-year collaboration with Seoul National University on lignin biorefinery as part of the World Class University Project. Run by South Korea’s Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation (NRF), the program was designed to attract leading international scientists to Korean Universities.
As part of the collaboration in Seoul, Kazlauskas developed a course on protein engineering which will be offered soon at the University of Minnesota.
Friedrich Srienc serves as Program Director at the National Science Foundation
In September 2012, longtime BTI member Friedrich Srienc (BTI/Chemical Engineering) began a 2-year appointment as Program Director for the Biotechnology, Biochemical, and Biomass Engineering (BBBE) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). During his appointment, Srienc will play a key role in funding of basic engineering research related to cellular and biomolecular processes, including the development of enabling technologies for the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, and bioenergy industries.
The NSF program encourages research in emerging disciplines, multidisciplinary practice, and activities which effectively incorporate educational endeavors. On leave of absence during his appointment, Srienc plans to return to University of Minnesota in the fall of 2014.
As Daniel Bond (BTI/Microbiology) takes over as the Graduate Degree in Microbial Engineering’s (MicE) Director of Graduate Studies, the program also welcomes two new students Komal Joshi, a native of India, and Stephen Michel from Laramie, Wyoming.
Joshi holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Biotechnology from the National Institute of Technology in Raipur, India. Passionate about microbiology, Joshi looks forward to beginning her coursework and research at the University.
Michel graduated from the University of Wyoming with a BS in Molecular Biology. Stephen who moved to Minnesota with his wife Olivia, is excited about the MicE program,
which combines many of his academic interests with the opportunity to apply those interests in the lab.
Three students also graduated from the MicE program in 2013:
Eric Lenneman who studied wax ester production in Marinobacter aquaeolei in the Barney Lab, successfully defended his master’s thesis this summer.
Josh Goldford, also graduated from the MicE program. In the Liboural Lab Josh focused on development of an automated platform for the identification and quantification of isotopically enriched peptides applicable to any experimental technique that uses stable isotopes and proteomics to report on cellular metabolism. Josh is currently working towards his PhD in Bioinformatics at Boston University.
In Ping Wang’s lab, Mitch Hoverman’s work focused on synthesizing nanoparticles embedded with active enzymes used in the bioactivation of active chemotherapeutic agents. Hoverman’s goal is to provide site-specific targeting of the drug activating nanoparticles, in order to reduce the dosage and toxic side effects of chemotherapy. BTI wishes Mitchell luck as he pursues a career in analytical chemistry.
Bond takes over the MicE program from Romas Kazlauskas (BTI/Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) who led the program from 2007-2012 and will now serve as Director of Graduate Studies in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics.
“Microbiology is changing rapidly.” Bond notes, “What sets this degree apart is its flexibility. Recent students have created interdisciplinary research programs combining microbiology with computer science, bioinformatics, or ecology. The MicE program will continue evolving to reflect new possibilities emerging in Microbial Engineering.”
The BioTechnology Institute welcomes Dan Knights, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Dan received his PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a certificate in Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology from the University’s BioFrontiers Institute. He comes to the University of Minnesota following a postdoctorate fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His research at the University of Minnesota focuses on the functional characterization of complex host-microbe interactions, including predictive modeling of those interactions across variations in the host genome and microbial communities.
An Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water and Climate, Brandy earned her PhD from the University of California-Berkley and completed a postdoctorate fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Her research at the University of Minnesota focuses on microbe-mineral interaction and the bio/geochemical cycling of metals in natural and contaminated environments.
Chad Myers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, joined the BioTechnology Institute in 2013. Chad earned his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Myers’ research focuses primarily on gene interaction and computational biology. He was named the McKnight Land-Grant Professor in 2011, and was also recently granted the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award (CAREER). We congratulate Chad Myers on his achievement, and welcome him to the BioTechnology Institute.