User:Zach Bjornson

Zach Bjørnson (©2006 Bart Nagel)

MIT Biological Engineering Department class of 2010 with plans for higher education.

My primary interest is in biomedical research such as pharmaceutical development and organogenesis. I would like to generate entire organs in vitro, though that is a distant goal. I would also like to work on treatments for [nonfatal] diseases. (I say nonfatal because I am strongly concerned about the effects of overpopulation on the environment. I might not stick to this "philosophy" in the end, but for now it is a simple idea.)

I also have a strong interest in plants and fungi (especially mushrooms and arbuscular mycorrhizae).

You can contact me at bjornson{at}mit{.}edu or through OpenWetWare.

Current Research and Bioengineering Projects

• Optimization of Expression, Solubilization and Purification of the Membrane Protein HORF17-4 in E. coli Using Fractional Factorial Design (Zhang Lab). Paper in progress.

Past Research and Bioengineering Projects

• Summer 2008: Developed a protocol to measure radical/reactive oxygen species in Gram-negative bacteria at the royal Chulabhorn Research Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. Also worked on isolating and identifying a compound (suspected to be homogentisic acid) from a Pseudomonas culture in which a certain oxidase was knocked out.
• 20.109 research proposal assignment: [enhancement of] vasculogenesis with statins and hyaluronan jelly. mock project only (wiki page)
• Optimization of Cell-Free Expression of Membrane Proteins with Self-Assembling Peptides (Zhang Lab)
• Cloning and Expression of UGT1A1 in E. coli (project blog)
• Airplane Drinking Water Testing for Microbial Contaminants
  • The EPA just proposed new regulations to enforce the cleanliness of drinking water served on airplanes!
  • U.S. EPA honors 37 environmental heroes at Earth Day ceremony
  • How Safe Is Airline Water? Bring Your Own Bottle!
  • Edutopia Daring Dozen 2006
  • CNN Transcripts
  • As well as others

Honors and Media

• Special Congressional Recognition for Environmental Work
• Environmental Protection Agency environmental service award
• United Nations Environment Programme youth advisor
• 2005 International Young Eco-Hero Award
• June 22, 2006 designated in Moraga, CA as a day of recognition
• Ready, set, go: Class of 2010 leaps into action. MIT Tech Talk article.
• A Genius for Leadership: MIT's Amazing Students. MIT Spectrum Summer 2007 article. (Cover page and following pages.)
• Making their own music. MIT Tech Talk article.
• See also the links above, in projects.

Lab Skills and Areas of Experience

Preparative

• DNA work (cloning, plasmid engineering, extraction, verification, site-directed mutagenesis, etc.)
• RNA work (time-course extraction, verification, reverse transcriptase PCR, etc.)
• Design of experiment - planning experiments from beginning to end (method selection, protocol development, troubleshooting)
• Design of experiment - fractional factorial optimization
• Bacterial cell culture, including BSL2+ pathogens
• Cell-free protein expression (E. coli lysate system)
• Yeast cell culture (for gDNA extraction)
• Mammalian cell culture (small scale) - 2D (plates/dishes) and 3D (scaffolds)
• Mammalian cell culture (large scale) - hollow fiber, rock-bed and stirred-tank bioreactors
• Use of GFP fusions as indicators of protein quality and quantity
• Extensive membrane protein work (overexpression of membrane proteins; lysing cells and solubilizing membrane proteins while maintaining protein quality/functionality)

Analytical (I have extensive experience with all of the following techniques, except where otherwise noted -- that is to say, I am very comfortable doing the following without a technician or supervisor.)

• General protein work (1D gels, Western blots, dot blots, ELISAs, etc.)
• Fluorescence microscopy (multicolor)
• Very extensive flow cytometry (multilaser, multicolor) of mammalian, bacterial and yeast cells
• UV/Vis spectroscopy (96-well format, for protein and DNA quantification; also in LC detection)
• Affinity chromatography (for purification of proteins; basic; used His-Trap and His-Spin kit)
• FPLC (of proteins)
• HPLC (of organic molecules)

Other

• Computer programming - extensive knowledge of Mathematica (ref. W. Craig Carter, professor for 3.016). Mathematica is widely accepted as the most powerful programming language in an interface that is fairly distant from the processor. It is similar to Maple and MatLab, but I think it is a better platform.
• Various mechanical engineering skills, including systems automation and fluids handling.

Other Interests

I play organ and harpsichord. You can frequently find me practicing organ in Kresge or the MIT Chapel. I'm building a replica of the 1736 Hemsch harpsichord (on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) in the MIT Hobby Shop (article and project blog). I like building things, and if I were to switch majors it would probably be to Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering).

I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm a vegetarian, tree-hugger, environmentalist, animal-rights activist... spreading San Francisco values.

And I love to travel.

Non-bioengineering Projects

These are mostly links to the internal pages of http://utopia.mit.edu.

• Check back here later for real links.
• I am the student facilities chair for Simmons Hall. I am organizing the effort to increase green space at the dorm, inside and out.
• I do a lot of A/V work and sound engineering at Simmons and elsewhere. Expertise in live sound reinforcement, distributed audio, system automation, high definition signal processing.
• I culture orchids... remotely. I started this in high school so I could hybridize species, but now my parents take care of the plants while I am at school.

Personal Sites

• Harpsichord Project Blog
• Under construction, my major personal site: u t o p i a
• Personal site, to be retired as Utopia comes online