Human Nature Lab job talk

“Molecular Mechanisms and Synthetic Ecology of Bacterial Interactions”

Speaker: Rey Allen

Talk summary: We characterized the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 for industrial-scale J8 jet fuel production. We used a systems approach combining synthetic biology and statistical modeling to characterize Synechocystis at the molecular, cellular, and community level for optimum biofuel yields. We generated a library of laurate-secreting Synechocystis strains with customized cellular adhesion properties, suited for a range of different photobioreactor formats and processing pipelines. We built and tested a quantitative model to optimize strategic parameters of the bacterial contaminomes in our 2000 liter outdoor photobioreactor. These results informed a proposal, proximity-guided metaproteomics, for comprehensive detection of DNA­protein and DNA-DNA interactions of microbial consortia in vivo. Predicted benefits of this proposed technique include high-throughput characterization of host­microbiome interactions relevant to applications to medicine and to agriculture. Additionally, the proposed technique would inform developing the next generation of metabolic network models for synthetic biology and synthetic ecology, by including XYZ spatial coordinates of key enzymes within cells.

Speaker bio: Rey Allen is a first-generation college graduate of Portland State University in Oregon. As a research technician in the lab of Yves Brun at Indiana University, Bloomington, she helped develop a molecular model for the holdfast anchor of the bacterium Cau/obacter crescentus. The holdfast is an exopolysaccharide on the surface of Cou/obacter, and is the world’s strongest glue. As a PhD student in Biological Design at Arizona State University, Tempe, Rey joined the labs of Roy Curtiss Ill and Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown. She applied her interests in bacterial adhesion and sustainable technology to develop tools for biofuel production by the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803. Rey is inspired to mentor passionate students from working-class backgrounds, while contributing to systems metabolic engineering and synthetic ecology of bacteria for large-scale socio-technological transition to a sustainable bio-economy. Her hobbies include meeting her friends’ dogs, and following you on #sciencetwitter. 

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