User:Zach Bjornson: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Zbb.jpg|right|thumb|Zach Bjørnson (©2006 Bart Nagel)]]
[[Image:Zbb.jpg|right|thumb|Zach Bjørnson (©2006 Bart Nagel)]]


MIT Biology Department class of 2010 with plans for higher education.
MIT Biology 2010 - S.B. | Stanford Microbiology and Immunology - graduate student (Ph.D. -- Nolan Lab)


My primary focus is in virology.
My primary focus is in Category A/BL4 pathogens (especially ebolavirus), and on the other end of the spectrum, I'm fascinated by rhinoviruses (major cause of the common cold). In both cases, I enjoy studying emerging pathogens and characterizing their differences from already-characterized bugs. I also enjoy studying the differences in immune responses between individuals with differing symptoms/outcomes after infection with the same virus.


One interest is respiratory viruses, especially picornaviruses (human rhinoviruses, major cause of the common cold). They are old pathogens identified in the 1960s, but as soon as researchers realized that there were more than 100 serotypes, people seemed to loose research interest. A few papers have come out recently, but there is still a big space for more research to be done here, and I'd like to help fill it.
I have a side interest and some experience in mechanical and electrical engineering.


Another interest is the hemorrhagic fever viruses, including Lassa, Sabia, Guanarito, Ebola and some pox viruses. The stuff everyone reads horror stories about in semi-fantastical books.
You can contact me at bjornson{at}stanford{.}edu or bjornson{at}broadinstitute{.}org.


I also have an interest in plants and fungi (especially mushrooms and arbuscular mycorrhizae).
== Current Research and Biology Projects ==
*Long-term sequelae of ebolavirus infection in humans. (Nolan lab, with Hensley/Honko)
*Immune profiling during fatal and nonfatal ebolavirus infection. (Nolan lab, with Hensley/Honko)
*Identifying causal agents of fevers of unknown origin via Illumina sequencing. (Rubins lab and Sabeti lab)


You can contact me at bjornson{at}mit{.}edu or bjornson{at}wi{.}mit{.}edu.
== Past Research and Biology Projects ==
 
*Assorted monkeypox transcriptomics and genomics; Ebola genomics.
== Current Research and Bioengineering Projects ==
*Research proposal: Antigenic characterization of newly detected rhinovirus variants; vaccination via polyvalent recombinant capsid protein expression. (This is a detailed proposal about 20 pages in length. Two papers that came out in early 2009 support that this project would have produced generally favorable outcomes.)
*Identifying causal agents of fevers of unknown origin with a microarray platform. (Rubins lab)
 
== 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.
*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'' ([http://openwetware.org/wiki/Enhancement_of_organogenesis_with_small_molecule_drugs wiki page])  
*20.109 research proposal assignment: [enhancement of] vasculogenesis with statins and hyaluronan jelly. ''mock project only'' ([http://openwetware.org/wiki/Enhancement_of_organogenesis_with_small_molecule_drugs wiki page])  
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== Honors and Media ==
== Honors and Media ==
*2010 William L. Stewart MIT Institute Award
*2010 Jeff Roberts Award
*2010 William and Betsy Leitch Award
*Special Congressional Recognition for Environmental Work
*Special Congressional Recognition for Environmental Work
*Environmental Protection Agency environmental service award
*Environmental Protection Agency environmental service award
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== Lab Skills and Areas of Experience ==
== Lab Skills and Areas of Experience ==
''Preparative''
*Molecular diagnostics (advanced design and applications of real-time PCR, etc.)
*Nucleic acids (cloning, engineering, extraction, site-directed mutagenesis, RT-PCR, real time PCR, etc.)
*Flow cytometry, mass cytometry (panel design, advanced analysis)
*Fractional factorial and D-optimal design of experiment
*Sequencing (Sanger, Illumina, 454, principally of viruses; including analysis)
*Bacterial cell culture, including BSL2+ pathogens - micro scale (microwell plate), medium scale (shake flask), large scale (stirred tank bioreactor)
*Microarrays (design, processing, analysis)
*Cell-free protein expression (E. coli lysate system)
*Bioinformatics (as noted throughout; high-performance computing, software design; Mathematica, C++, R, Java, C#, VB, others)
*Yeast cell culture
*Process optimization (D-optimal and fractional factorial design of experiments; process scale-up)
*Mammalian cell (tissue) culture (small scale) - 2D (plates/dishes) and 3D (scaffolds)
*Cell culture (2D and 3D; most types of bioreactors for mammalian cell and virus growth)
*Mammalian cell culture (large scale) - hollow fiber, rock-bed and stirred-tank bioreactors
*General molecular biology (protein gels, Westerns, FPLC, HPLC, Northerns, cloning, SDM)
*Mammalian cell culture - metabolite monitoring; scale-up design
*Various mechanical engineering skills, including systems automation, robotics and fluids handling.
*Extensive membrane protein work (overexpression of membrane proteins; lysing cells and solubilizing membrane proteins while maintaining protein quality/functionality)
 
''Analytical''
*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)
*Real time PCR
 
''Other''
*Computer programming - extensive knowledge of Mathematica. Mathematica is widely accepted as the most powerful programming language, and one of the fastest. Knowledge also of R, Visual Basic and Perl (mostly for Web interfaces).
*Various mechanical engineering skills, including systems automation and fluids handling.


== Other Interests ==
== 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 ([http://hobbyshop.mit.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Hobby_shop_CFS_20070618.pdf article] and [http://hemsch.blogspot.com project blog]). I like building things, and if I were to switch majors it would probably be to Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering).
I play organ.


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


And I love to travel.
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 ==
== Personal Sites ==
*[http://hemsch.blogspot.com Harpsichord Project Blog]
*[http://hemsch.blogspot.com Harpsichord Project Blog]
*[http://utopia.mit.edu Under construction, my major personal site: u t o p i a]
*[http://utopia.stanford.edu My main portal site] (previously utopia.mit.edu)
*[http://web.mit.edu/bjornson/www/ Personal site, to be retired as Utopia comes online]

Latest revision as of 13:41, 28 February 2012

Zach Bjørnson (©2006 Bart Nagel)

MIT Biology 2010 - S.B. | Stanford Microbiology and Immunology - graduate student (Ph.D. -- Nolan Lab)

My primary focus is in Category A/BL4 pathogens (especially ebolavirus), and on the other end of the spectrum, I'm fascinated by rhinoviruses (major cause of the common cold). In both cases, I enjoy studying emerging pathogens and characterizing their differences from already-characterized bugs. I also enjoy studying the differences in immune responses between individuals with differing symptoms/outcomes after infection with the same virus.

I have a side interest and some experience in mechanical and electrical engineering.

You can contact me at bjornson{at}stanford{.}edu or bjornson{at}broadinstitute{.}org.

Current Research and Biology Projects

  • Long-term sequelae of ebolavirus infection in humans. (Nolan lab, with Hensley/Honko)
  • Immune profiling during fatal and nonfatal ebolavirus infection. (Nolan lab, with Hensley/Honko)
  • Identifying causal agents of fevers of unknown origin via Illumina sequencing. (Rubins lab and Sabeti lab)

Past Research and Biology Projects

  • Assorted monkeypox transcriptomics and genomics; Ebola genomics.
  • Research proposal: Antigenic characterization of newly detected rhinovirus variants; vaccination via polyvalent recombinant capsid protein expression. (This is a detailed proposal about 20 pages in length. Two papers that came out in early 2009 support that this project would have produced generally favorable outcomes.)
  • 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 Expression, Solubilization and Purification of the Membrane Protein HORF17-4 in E. coli Using Fractional Factorial Design (Zhang Lab).
  • 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

Honors and Media

  • 2010 William L. Stewart MIT Institute Award
  • 2010 Jeff Roberts Award
  • 2010 William and Betsy Leitch Award
  • 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

  • Molecular diagnostics (advanced design and applications of real-time PCR, etc.)
  • Flow cytometry, mass cytometry (panel design, advanced analysis)
  • Sequencing (Sanger, Illumina, 454, principally of viruses; including analysis)
  • Microarrays (design, processing, analysis)
  • Bioinformatics (as noted throughout; high-performance computing, software design; Mathematica, C++, R, Java, C#, VB, others)
  • Process optimization (D-optimal and fractional factorial design of experiments; process scale-up)
  • Cell culture (2D and 3D; most types of bioreactors for mammalian cell and virus growth)
  • General molecular biology (protein gels, Westerns, FPLC, HPLC, Northerns, cloning, SDM)
  • Various mechanical engineering skills, including systems automation, robotics and fluids handling.

Other Interests

I play organ.

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

And I love to travel.

Personal Sites

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