Han Altae-Tran (ZHANG LAB)

Biolux Enables High-throughput Genome Mining for the Targeted Discovery of Novel Enzymes

Many of the molecular tools that revolutionized biotechnology, such as CRISPR, antibodies, and channelrhodopsins, arose from experimentally studying natural biodiversity. We hypothesize that other programmable protein systems with novel functions exist, and discuss computational approaches to find these systems in genomic DNA. We present Biolux, a general purpose computing engine that allows us to analyze terabytes of biological data, and discuss example discovery pipelines, along with subsequent experimental characterization.

Shalmalee Pandit (BELCHER LAB)

Nanoparticle Based Stimulation of Yeast Cells for Biofuel Production

Artificially photosynthetic systems aim to store solar energy and chemically reduce carbon dioxide. These systems have been developed in order to use light to drive processes for carbon fixation into biomass and/or liquid fuels. The aim of this project is to develop a hybrid system that manages both genetically controlled biological production of materials and products along with the photactivability of a semiconductor system.