Introducing Our Authors pubs.acs.org/synthbio
Cite This: ACS Synth. Biol. 2018, 7, 297−298
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́ LETICIA MAGALHÃ ES ARRUDA
Education. Dipl. Ing. (Biochemical Engineering), Technical University of Dortmund; Ph.D. (Metabolic Engineering), The University of Queensland. Current Position. Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Ames Research Center. Nonscientific Interests. All sorts of fun outdoors (and sometimes also indoors) activities, including, but not limited to surfing, swimming, winter sports (snowboarding), running and martial arts. Apart from that traveling is also fun, which is good, as it comes with the job. Used to play in a punk rock band. I am excited about space synthetic biology on the one hand and technical biochemistry of natural products on the other hand. Synthetic biology has been identified as a disruptive and potentially game-changing technology for application in space technology for in situ resource utilization, to manifest the vision of establish footholds across the solar system. This can be the biotechnological production of feed-stocks for all sorts of commodities, from materials (like plastics) to food and medication. Leveraging biotechnology in order to provide affordable and accessible pharmaceuticals by heterologous production off-planet, as well as here on earth, blends in with this objective. To address exciting problems in these fields with creative solutions I combine metabolic modeling with genetic engineering and use synthetic and systems biology tools for metabolic engineering. (Read Nil’s article DOI: 10.1021/ acssynbio.7b00304).
L. Arruda
Education. Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Universidade de São Paulo (2015). Advisor: Richard John Ward. B.Sc. in Biochemistry in Universidade Federal de Viçosa (2010). Current Position. Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, FMRP-USP, Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo. Advisor: José Carlos Alves Filho. Nonscientific Interests. Gymnastics, dancing, reading. I also love have a nice cup of coffee with my friends. My Ph.D. work was in the field of protein engineering, in which I studied the three-dimensional frame of protein scaffolds. Using this approach, during my postdoctoral period at Systems and Synthetic Biology Lab we constructed several bacterial promoters mixing the transcription factors boxes in a combinatorial way to explore gene regulation. These experiments allowed us to describe new properties of promoters that would not be anticipated by analyzing the modules individually. Nowadays I still work with protein engineering and regulation, but at the context of immunometabolism. (Read Leticia’s article; DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.7b00344).
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EDWARD DING
NILS J. H. AVERESCH
Liewei Yan
Education. Baccalaureate Student (Chemistry major, Computer Science minor) at Washington University in St. Louis. Current Position. Undergraduate Researcher, Biology Department, Washington University in St. Louis. Nonscientific Interests. Playing badminton, traveling, hiking, playing guitar, and walking dogs. Streptomyces bacteria produce a wealth of natural products that are widely used as drugs today. I’m interested in how we N.J.H. Averesch
Received: February 9, 2018 Published: February 16, 2018 © 2018 American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00059 ACS Synth. Biol. 2018, 7, 297−298
ACS Synthetic Biology
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can engineer bacteria to produce a specific family of natural products called polycyclic tetramate macrolactams (PTMs). In this work, we heterologously expressed a series of cytochrome P450 isozymes to convert ikarugamycin-producing Streptomyces sp. strain NRRL F-2890 to produce clifednamide instead. I’m currently working to characterize additional PTM biosynthetic genes toward creating engineered molecules with antibiotic potential. I find working with natural product tailoring enzymes fascinating. This is because nature undoubtedly uses them decorate chemical scaffolds that ultimately control bacterial growth. We hope studies like these may provide useful insights toward drug development and discovery in light of growing antimicrobial resistance. (Read Edward’s article DOI: 10.1021/ acssynbio.7b00349).
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Introducing Our Authors
ZILONG LI
Z. Li
Education. Ph.D., Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science; B.S., University of Xiangtan. Current Position. Assistant Professor, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science. Nonscientific Interests. Playing basketball and traveling. I like focusing my research on industrial microbiology. It is very cool when my bugs make useful products as designed for us. Therefore, my research interests mainly involve synthetic biology and biotechnology. (Read Zilong’s article DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.7b00318).
MINJI LEE
M. Lee
Education. B.S., Department of Biology, Chonnam National University. Current Position. Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Advisor: Prof. Won Do Heo. Nonscientific Interests. I enjoy watching movies and traveling. I am interested in history and mythology; in fact, I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a kid. In recent years, in our group, we have developed and engineered optogenetic tools to answer critical questions in biological systems. These techniques allowed signal pathways and cellular processes in various systems, from mammalian cells to in vivo, to be controlled by light with spatiotemporal manner. In my case, I was interested in regulation of downstream signaling pathways and cellular events elicited upon receptor activation. In return, I developed an optogenetic tool to modulate the TGF-β signaling pathway. In this article, we demonstrate the optically controlled TGF-βR, optoTGFBRs, can alter Smad2 signaling dynamics by modulating the pattern of light. In the future, I hope optoTGFBRs will be an important optogenetic tool that can be used to study various biological processes in vitro and in vivo. (Read Minji’s article DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.7b00225). 298
DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00059 ACS Synth. Biol. 2018, 7, 297−298
