Brett Boghigian

Giving a talk at Tufts in the spring of 2009

Contact Information

In April 2011, Brett joined the founding team as the third scientific hire of Pronutria (formerly known as Essentient, Inc.) a company in Cambridge, MA founded and funded by Flagship Ventures to transform global nutrition.

Education

• 2010 - Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Tufts University
  • Thesis: "Multi-scale engineering and modeling of heterologous natural product biosynthesis in Escherichia coli" (384pp)
  • Adviser: Professor Blaine A. Pfeifer
• 2007 - B.S. Chemical Engineering (philosophy minor), Tufts University

Scientific Expertise

Metabolic engineering and strain development, upstream and downstream bioprocess development, photosynthetic organisms, computational systems biology, analytical chemistry, natural products, synthetic biology

Peer-Reviewed Publications

(* indicates co-first author. ^† indicates undergraduate author)

• Boghigian BA, Armando J^†, Salas DF^†, Pfeifer BA. Computational identification of gene over-expression targets for metabolic engineering. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2012 Mar;93(5):2063-73. (Link)
• Boghigian BA, Salas DF^†, Ajikumar PK, Stephanopoulos G, Pfeifer BA. Analysis of heterologous taxadiene production in K- and B-derived Escherichia coli. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2012 Feb;93(4):1651-61. (Link)
• Armando J^†, Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. LC-MS/MS quantification of short-chain acyl-CoA's in Escherichia coli demonstrates versatile propionyl-CoA synthetase substrate specificity. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2012 Feb;54(2):140-8. (Link)
• Boghigian BA*, Myint M*^†, Wu J, Pfeifer BA. Simultaneous production and partitioning of heterologous polyketide and isoprenoid natural products in an Escherichia coli two-phase bioprocess. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol. 2011 Nov;38(11):1809-20. (Link)
• Boghigian BA, Zhang H, Pfeifer BA. Multi-factorial engineering of heterologous polyketide production in Escherichia coli reveals complex pathway interactions. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2011 Jun;108(6):1360-71. (Link)
• Zhang H, Boghigian BA, Armando J^†, Pfeifer BA. Methods and options for the heterologous production of complex natural products. Nat Prod Rep. 2011 Jan 17;28(1):125-51. (Link)
• Wu J, Boghigian BA, Myint M^†, Zhang H, Zhang S, Pfeifer BA. Construction and performance of heterologous polyketide producing K-12- and B-derived Escherichia coli. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2010 Aug;51(2):196-204. (PubMed)
• Boghigian BA, Shi H, Lee K, Pfeifer BA. Utilizing elementary mode analysis, pathway thermodynamics, and a genetic algorithm for metabolic flux determination and optimal metabolic network design. BMC Syst Biol. 2010 Apr 23;4(1):49. (PubMed) "Highly Accessed" status
• Boghigian BA, Seth G, Kiss R, Pfeifer BA. Metabolic flux analysis and pharmaceutical production. Metab Eng. 2010 Mar;12(2):81-95. (PubMed) "Most Downloaded" status
• Zhang H, Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. Investigating the role of native propionyl-CoA and methylmalonyl-CoA metabolism on heterologous polyketide production in Escherichia coli. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2010 Feb 15;105(3):567-73. (PubMed)
• Boghigian BA, Lee K, Pfeifer BA. Computational analysis of phenotypic space in heterologous polyketide biosynthesis – applications to Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J Theor Biol. 2010 Jan 21;262(2):197-207. (PubMed)
• Zhang H, Wang Y, Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. Probing the heterologous metabolism supporting 6-deoxyerythronolide B biosynthesis in E. coli. Microbial Biotechnol. 2009 May;2(3):390-4. (Link)
• 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. (PubMed)
• 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. (PubMed)
• 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. (PubMed)

Conference Presentations

• Boghigian BA, Pfeifer BA. Multi-scale engineering of heterologous polyketide and isoprenoid natural products in Escherichia coli. SIM Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA). 2010.
• Boghigian BA, Wang Y, Salas D, Stephanopoulos G, Pfeifer BA. Multi-scale engineering of a Taxol^® precursor in Escherichia coli. AIChE Annual Meeting (Nashville, TN). 2009.
• Boghigian BA, Wang Y, Pistorino M, Pfeifer BA. Multiple approaches to improving heterologous polyketide production from E. coli. Metabolic Engineering VII (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico). 2008.
• Boghigian BA, Wang Y, Lee K, Pfeifer BA. Improving heterologous polyketide production in Escherichia coli through signal pathway engineering and metabolic modeling. Boston Bacteriology Meeting (Cambridge, MA). 2008.
• Boghigian BA^†, Wang Y, Pfeifer BA. A closer look at E. coli-derived 6-deoxyerythronolide B biosynthesis. AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA). 2006.
• Wang Y, Boghigian BA^†, Shi G, Zhang H, Lavoie JR, Pfeifer BA. Enhancing polyketide production in E. coli by the accumulating of intracellular S-adenosylmethionine. Boston Bacterial Meeting (Cambridge, MA). 2006.
• 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. HUPO 3rd Annual World Congress (Beijing, China). 2004.

Recognition

• 2009 – Outstanding Graduate Contributor to Engineering Education Award, Tufts University School of Engineering
• 2008 – Best Teaching Assistant Award, Tufts University Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering
• 2007 – Best Presentation Award, Tufts University Undergraduate Research Symposium
• 2006 – Outstanding Chemical Engineering Student at Tufts University, Boston Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Work Experience

• Apr11-current - Pronutria (Cambridge, MA)
• May05–Apr11 – 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)

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