User:Zach Bjornson
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MIT Biology Department class of 2010 with plans for higher education.
My primary focus is in virology. I get a kick out of BL4 pathogens, 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 have an interest in plants and fungi (especially mushrooms and arbuscular mycorrhizae).
You can contact me at bjornson{at}mit{.}edu or bjornson{at}wi{.}mit{.}edu.
Current Research and Biology Projects
- Identifying causal agents of fevers of unknown origin with a microarray platform. Characterizing by ultrahighthroughput sequencing. Further down, maybe developing cell culture and animal models of some interesting ones. (Rubins lab and Sabeti lab)
Past Research and Biology Projects
- Research proposal: Antigenic characterization of newly detected rhinovirus variants; vaccination via polyvalent recombinant capsid protein expression. (This is a very detailed proposal about 20 pages in length. Two papers that came out in early 2009 support that this project might even work!)
- 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
- 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
Analytical
- General protein work (1D gels, Western blots, dot blots, ELISAs, etc.)
- Fluorescence microscopy (fixed cells, 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
- Very extensive microarray work
- RNA analysis (Northerns, qPCR)
- Ultrahighthroughput sequencing (Illumina Solexa platform) for transcriptome profiling and viral sequence recovery
Preparative
- Nucleic acids (cloning, engineering, extraction, site-directed mutagenesis, RT-PCR, real time PCR, etc.)
- Fractional factorial and D-optimal design of experiment
- Bacterial cell culture, including BSL2+ pathogens - micro to macro scale (microwell to bioreactor)
- Cell-free protein expression (E. coli lysate system)
- Mammalian cell (tissue) culture (small scale) - 2D (plates/dishes) and 3D (scaffolds)
- Mammalian cell culture (large scale) - hollow fiber, rocked-bed and stirred-tank bioreactors
- Mammalian cell culture - metabolite monitoring; scale-up design
- Extensive membrane protein work (overexpression of membrane proteins; lysing cells and solubilizing membrane proteins while maintaining native conformation)
Bioinformatics
- Microarray probeset design (challenges: minimization of cross-hybridizations and maximization of target alignment)
- Microarray signal processing and analysis
- Short-read sequencing processing and analysis
- Selective/subtractive hybridization bait design
- Pathogen detection algorithms
Other
- Computer programming - extensive knowledge of Mathematica. Mathematica is widely accepted as the most powerful high-level 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, robotics 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.
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
- 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.
