Brett Boghigian
Contact Information
Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Tufts University
Science & Technology Center
4 Colby Street
Medford, MA 02155
Lab/Desk: (SciTech 286) 617.627.2685
Fax: 617.627.3991
E-mail: brett [dot] boghigian [at] tufts [dot] edu
Education
- 2007-present Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Tufts University
- 2003-2007 B.S. Chemical Engineering (philosophy minor), Tufts University
Research Interests
My research and academic interests are in: metabolic engineering, natural products, computational systems biology and bioinformatics, analytical proteomics and metabolomics, bioprocess and biochemical engineering, and protein purification. Although they are not topics of my research, I am interested in the philosophy of molecular biology and evolution, as well as alternative fuel technology.
Throughout my undergraduate and graduate research, I have worked on many collaborative projects with the following laboratories: Prof. Kyongbum Lee at Tufts (on metabolic modeling), Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos at MIT (on heterologous terpenoid production), Prof. George M. Church at Harvard Medical School (on high-throughput genetic engineering techniques), EarthGenes Pharmaceuticals LLC (on natural products discovery), Wyeth Research (on marine natural products), and PerkinElmer Life & Analytical Sciences (on gel-based proteomic profiling).
Publications
(* indicates co-first author)
- Boghigian BA, Lee K, Georgakis C, Vinson DR, Pfeifer BA. Towards metabolic operability - designing metabolic networks with process design methodologies. 2009. In preparation.
- Boghigian BA, Seth G, Kiss R, Pfeifer BA. Metabolic flux analysis and pharmaceutical production. 2009. Review. In preparation.
- Boghigian BA, Shi H, Pfeifer BA, Lee K. On the utilization of convex analysis, pathway thermodynamics, and a genetic algorithm for metabolic flux determination and optimal metabolic network design. 2009. In preparation.
- Boghigian BA, Lee K, Pfeifer BA. Computational analysis of phenotypic space in heterologous polyketide biosynthesis – applications to Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 2009. Submitted.
- Zhang H, Wang Y, Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. Probing the heterologous metabolism supporting 6-deoxyerythronolide B biosynthesis in E. coli. Microbial Biotechnol. 2009. In press.
- Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. Current status, strategies, and potential for the metabolic engineering of heterologous polyketides in Escherichia coli. Biotechnol Lett. 2008 Aug;30(8):1323-30. Review.
- Wang Y*, Boghigian BA*, Pfeifer BA. Improving heterologous polyketide production in Escherichia coli by overexpression of an S-adenosylmethionine synthetase gene. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2007 Nov;77(2):367-73.
- Scrivener E, Boghigian BA, Golenko E, Bogdanova A, Jackson P, Mikulskis A, Denoyer E, Courtney P, Lopez MF, Patton WF. Performance validation of an improved Xenon-arc lamp-based CCD camera system for multispectral imaging in proteomics. Proteomics. 2005 Nov;5(17):4354-66.
- Stehmann C, Boghigian BA, Golenko E, Scrivener E, Patton WF, Lopez MF. A Xenon-arc lamp-based charge-coupled device (CCD) camera system for multispectral imaging in proteomics. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2004 Oct;3(10):S301.
Work Experience
- May05-present - Pfeifer Lab, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Tufts University (Medford, MA)
- May07-Aug07 - Wyeth BioPharma, Purification Process Development (Andover, MA)
- Sep04-May05 - Kaplan Lab, Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University (Medford, MA)
- Jun04-Sep04 - PerkinElmer Life & Analytical Sciences, Biochemistry (Boston, MA)
- May04-Aug04 - Noelle Industries, Process Manufacturing (Billerica, MA)
- A lot more you don't care about
Teaching Experience
(all at Tufts University)
- Spring 2009 - CHBE24B - Senior Projects Laboratory, Teaching Assistant for Prof. David R. Vinson
- Fall 2008 - CHBE24A - Senior Projects Laboratory, Teaching Assistant for Prof. David R. Vinson
- Spring 2008 - CHBE168 – Biotechnology Process Projects Laboratory, Teaching Assistant for Prof. Hyunmin Yi
- Spring 2008 - CHBE24B – Senior Projects Laboratory, Teaching Assistant for Prof. Blaine A. Pfeifer
- Fall 2007 - CHBE10 – Thermodynamics & Process Calculations I, Guest Lecturer for Prof. Blaine A. Pfeifer
- Fall 2007 - CHBE24A - Senior Projects Laboratory, Teaching Assistant for Prof. Blaine A. Pfeifer
- Fall 2006 - EN3 - Introduction to Biotechnology Engineering, Guest Lecturer for Prof. David L. Kaplan
Personal
I graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering and a minor in philosophy from Tufts University in May of 2007. After a summer working in purification process development at Wyeth BioPharma, I started the M.S. program in chemical engineering in our department in the fall of 2007. After a short stint in that program, I entered the Ph.D. program in chemical engineering. Although I've been told my accent is almost gone (...scary), I grew up in a suburb of Boston: Bedford, MA and attended Bedford High School. In my free time (hah), I enjoy hanging out with my friends, watching movies (from Kubrick and Coppola to Bergman and Fellini), watching Boston sports (Pats, Sox, C's, but not really the B's), listening to music (Lil' Wayne...the best rapper alive), and playing sports (tennis, golf, ping-pong, whiffleball (if that's a sport), baseball, and basketball).
Links
About Me
- Article/Picture in the Tufts Daily (3/13/06) - 2006 Undergraduate Research Symposium
- On the CHBE Department website
Labs of Interest
- Gregory Stephanopoulos (MIT)
- Jay Kesling (UC Berkeley)
- Kyongbum Lee (Tufts)
- Daniel Wang (MIT)
- Charles Cooney (MIT)
- Kelvin Lee (Cornell)
- Chaitan Khosla (Stanford)
- Frances Arnold (CalTech)
- David Cane (Brown)
- George Whitesides (Harvard)
- George Church (Harvard)
- Christopher Walsh (Harvard)
- Jon Clardy (Harvard)
- George Gergiou (Texas)
- James Liao (UCLA)
- Wei-Shu Hu (Minnesota)
- Costas Maranas (Penn State)
