User:GMcArthurIV

VGEM

http://www.che.virginia.edu/images/index_banner.gif Everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jigglings and wigglings of atoms. –Richard P. Feynman

George McArthur IV

George is the founder of UVA's Virginia Genetically Engineered Machine (VGEM) Team. He is a rising fourth-year chemical engineering and music double major concentrating in biotechnology and composition respectively.

Academic Interests

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. –Loren Eisley

My research goals include utilizing synthetic biology principles, in particular standardized biological parts derived from marine organisms, in the genetic circuit and metabolic pathway engineering of microorganisms for use in large-scale industrial bioprocesses including the bioproduction of specialty chemicals, biofuels and biopharmaceuticals. I'm currently designing an undergraduate synthetic biology course at UVA titled Biological Systems Design.

My undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (in addition to Music), coupled with future graduate studies in biological engineering, marine biotechnology and applied molecular microbiology will hopefully prepare me to tackle old and new bioengineering problems, including the bioremediation of our planet's coral reefs, and participate in the exciting biotech revolution that is occurring and that will continue to shape our world.

Undergraduate Thesis Project

All of the effects of Nature are only the mathematical consequences of a small number of immutable laws. –Pierre Simon de LaPlace

My thesis project will consist of the two following parts:

A cellulase-proteorhodopsin hybrid metabolic engine for butanol production by engineered Escherichia coli: Metabolic pathway engineering via standardized biological parts.

A cellulase-proteorhodopsin hybrid metabolic engine for butanol production by engineered Escherichia coli: Bioreactor and process design for increased yield and volumetric productivity.

Interesting Literature

Biophotonics

1. Photobiology of bacteria
2. Proteorhodopsin photosystem gene expression enables photophosphorylation in a heterologous host by DeLong et al
3. Light-powering E. coli with proteorhodopsin
4. Insights into metabolic properties of marine bacteria encoding proteorhodopsins
5. Differential activation of E. coli chemoreceptors by blue-light stimuli

Cellulase

1. Complete cellulase system in the marine bacterium Saccharophagus degradans strain 2-40T by by Weiner et al
2. Improvement of Cellulolytic Properties of Clostridium cellulolyticum by Metabolic Engineering

Hydrogen Biofuel

1. Light-driven hydrogen production by a hybrid complex of a [NiFe]-hydrogenase and the cyanobacteria photosystem I
2. Biohydrogen
3. Mutant Algae Is Hydrogen Factory

Butanol Biofuel

1. Butanol fermentation research: upstream and downstream manipulations
2. Butanol production from agricultural residues: Impact of degradation products on Clostridium beijerinckii growth and butanol fermentation
3. Bioproduction of butanol from biomass: from genes to bioreactors
4. Dynamics of Genomic-Library Enrichment and Identification of Solvent Tolerance Genes for Clostridium acetobutylicum
5. Butanol Production from Corn Fiber Xylan Using Clostridium acetobutylicum
6. Bacterial acetone and butanol production by industrial fermentation in the Soviet Union: use of hydrolyzed agricultural waste for biorefinery
7. Butanol Production by a Butanol-Tolerant Strain of Clostridium acetobutylicum in Extruded Corn Broth

Metabolic Engineering

1. Challenges in engineering microbes for biofuel production by Stephanopoulos
2. Metabolic engineering by Stephanopoulos
3. Global physiological understanding and metabolic engineering of microorganisms based on omics studies by Park et al

Links

• Gossamer Fidelity (the band)
• Sorcerer II Expedition
• Synthetic Genomics (the company)
• Molecular Marine Biology Laboratory
• Marine Biotech
• Institute of Biological Engineering
• homestarrunner.com

Contact

George's email

http://www.marinebiotech.org/images/infinsp1.jpg