February 10, 2007

Currently in its 13th year, the Biotechnology Training Program is a competitive, NIH-funded program for select graduate students in biotechnology-related disciplines. The Training Program provides Trainees with opportunities to collaborate and share ideas with peers and faculty in a variety of disciplines; the Program affords Trainees greater research and training opportunities than those available through their individual departments. Additionally, students gain significant exposure to industrial biotechnology research. In 2006, invited lecturers from Agensys, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, and Eli Lilly all presented their work to Biotechnology Training Program trainees.

Introduced in 2005, the Biotechnology Research Club is the forum where interdisciplinary research presentations provide trainees additional opportunities to interact with each other, with faculty preceptors, and with industrial scientists brought to campus by the Training Program. Instruction in the responsible conduct of research is carried out primarily through the course “Ethics in Biological Research”, offered annually and completed by all trainees. Short industrial internships expose trainees to applied research in modern biotechnology. All trainees participate in the IBiS Program's, two-day, off-campus annual scientific retreat, which allows extensive interactions among students and faculty from many disciplines.

Currently funded trainees from Chemical and Biological Engineering include Jacob Borden (Papoutsakis group), Nathan Brown (Barron group), Sofia Garcia (Miller group), Bryan Tracy (Papoutsakis group), and Michael Weiss (Shea group). Former and honorary trainees include Stacey Pace, Joanna Gonzalez, Keith Alsaker, Chris Ramsborg, Caralynn Helm, Tatiana Segura, and Wyatt Vreeland.

Trainee Publication List (from the 2006 NIH Progress Report)

J. Allen, S. Khan, R. Hoshi, D. Motlagh, M.C. Serrano, A. Shekaran, G. Ameer.  “Isolation and differentiation of porcine progenitor cells into endothelial-like cells for vascular tissue engineering.”  Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. 2006, Submitted.

D. Motlagh*, J. Allen*, R. Hoshi, J. Yang, K. Lui, G. Ameer. “Hemocompatibility evaluation of poly(diol citrate) in vitro for vascular tissue engineering.”  Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. 2006, Submitted. (*) Authors contributed equally

J. Allen, Y. Liu, Y.L. Kim, V. M. Turzhitsky, V. Backman, G. Ameer.  “Spectroscopic Translation of Cell-Material Interactions.”  Biomaterials 2007, (28) 162-174.

J. Yang, D. Motlagh, J. Allen, A. Webb, MR Kibbe, O. Aalami, M. Kapadia, TJ Carroll, G Ameer.  “Modulating ePTFE vascular graft host response via citric acid-based biodegradable elastomers.”  Advance Material 2006, 18. 1493-1498

Y. Liu, J. Allen, Y. L. Kim, V. Turzhitsky, G. Ameer, V. Backman. “Light Scattering "Fingerprinting" for Characterization of Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation.” Proceedings of SPIE, 5319, BiOS 2004, Photonics West, San Jose, CA, January 24-29, 2004. 

J.R. Borden and E.T. Papoutsakis, “Dynamics of genomic-library enrichment and identification of solvent-tolerance genes in Clostridium acetobutylicum,” Appl and Envir Micro, In Press.

J.R. Borden, C.J. Paredes, E.T. Papoutsakis, “Diffusion, Mixing, and Associated Dye Effects in DNA-Microarray Hybridizations,” Biophys J, 2005, 89(5), 3277-84.

J.R. Borden, Y.Y. Lee, H.H. Yoon, “Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of cellulosic biomass to acetic acid,” Appl Biochem Biotechnol, 2000, Spring, 84-86, 963-70.

N.J. Brown, C.W. Wu, S.L. Seurynck, A.E. Barron. “The effects of hydrophobic helix length and side chain chemistry on the biomimetic behavior of peptoid analogs of surfactant protein C,” Biochemistry, in prepreparation.

S.L. Seurynck, N.J. Brown, M.T. Dohm, C.W. Wu, A.E. Barron. “The effects of lipid composition on the properties and performance of helical, peptoid-based mimics of lung surfactant proteins B and C,” Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, submitted.

S.L. Seurynck, N.J. Brown, C.W. Wu, K.W. Germino, E.K. Kohlmeir, E.P. Ingenito, M.R. Glucksberg, A.E. Barron, M. Johnson. “Optical Monitoring of Bubble Size and Shape in a Pulsating Bubble Surfactometer,” Journal of Applied Physiology,2005, 99 (2), 624-33.

A.M. Leone, J.D. Tibodeau, S.R. Bull, S.W. Feldberg, H.H. Thorp, R.W. Murray, “Ion Atmoshphere Relaxation and Percolative Electron Transfer in Co Bipyridine DNA Molton Salts,” JACS, 2003, (125), 6784-6790.

T.J. Meade, S.R. Bull, A.K. Taylor, “New magnetic resonance contrast agents as biochemical reporters,” Curr. Opin. Neurobiol., 2003, (13), 597-602. 

S.R. Bull, M.O. Guler, R.E. Bras, T.J. Meade, S.I. Stupp, “Self-Assembled Peptide Amphiphile Nanofibers Conjugated to MRI Contrast Agents,” Nano Letters, 2005, (5) 1-4. 

S.R. Bull, M.O. Guler, R.E. Bras, N.V. Palamadia, S.I. Stupp, T.J. Meade, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Self-Assembled Biomaterial Scaffolds,” Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2005, 16(6), 1343-48.

T.W. Jensen, B.H. Hu, S.M. Dellatore, A.S. Garcia, P.B. Messersmith, W.M. Miller, “Lipopeptides incorporated into supported phospholipid monolayers have high specific activity at low incorporation levels,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2004, 126(46) 15223-15230.

J. González-Lergier, L.J. Broadbelt, V. Hatzimanikatis, “Theoretical Considerations and Computational Analysis of the Complexity in Polyketide Synthesis Pathways,” J Am Chem Soc, 2005, 127(27) 9930-9938.

J. González-Lergier, L.J. Broadbelt, V. Hatzimanikatis, “Analysis of the Maximum Theoretical Yield for the Synthesis of 6-deoxyerythronolide B in Escherichia coli,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, (2006), In Press.

J. González-Lergier, L.J. Broadbelt, V. Hatzimanikatis, “Representation of Stereochemical Effects in the Generation of Biological Reaction Networks,” 2006, (in preparation).

J. González-Lergier, L.J. Broadbelt, V. Hatzimanikatis, “In silico High-throughput Analysis of Polyketide Synthesis,” 2006, (in preparation).

B.C. Braden, F.A. Goldbaum, B.-X. Chen, A.N. Kirschner, S.R. Wilson, B.F. Erlanger, “X-Ray Crystal Structure of an Anti-Buckminsterfullerene Antibody Fragment: Biomolecular Recognition of C60,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2000, (97) 12193-12197.

D.I. Schuster, S.R. Wilson, A.N. Kirschner, R.F. Schinazi, S. Schleuter-Wirtz, P. Tharnish, T. Barnett, J. Ermolieff, J. Tang, M. Brettreich, A. Hirsch, “Evaluation of the Anti-HIV Potency of a Water-Soluble Dendrimeric Fullerene Derivative,” Proc. Electrochem. Soc, 2000, (9) 267-270.

B.C. Braden, B.-X. Chen, B.F. Erlanger, A.N. Kirschner, S.R. Wilson, “Characterization of a Monoclonal Antibody to Fullerenes,” Proc. Electrochem. Soc, 2000, (9) 233-239.

A.N. Kirschner, D.H. Santosa, S.R. Wilson, “Liposomes vs. Carbon Nanotubes as Small Molecule Vessels for Drug Delivery,” Proc. Electrochem. Soc, 2000, (9) 250-257.

A.N. Kirschner, B.F. Erlanger, S.R. Wilson, “A Biosensor for Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes,” Eighth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology, electronic publication, 2001.

D.I. Schuster, P.D. Jarowski, A.N. Kirschner, S.R. Wilson, “Molecular Modelling of Fullerene-Porphyrin Dyads,” J. Materials Chem, 2002, 12(7), 2041-2047.

A.N. Kirschner, J. Omerovi, A. Lowrey, R. Longnecker, T.S. Jardetzky, “Soluble Epstein-Barr virus glycoproteins gH, gL, and gp42 form a 1:1:1 stable complex that has similar membrane fusion function to that of soluble gp42 alone,” 2006, 80(19), 9444-54.

J.D. Fackenthal, L. Sveen, Q. Gao, E.K. Kohlmeir, C. Adebamowo, T.O. Ogundiran, A.A. Adenipekun, R. Oyesegun, O. Campbell, C. Rotimi, E.E. Akang, S. Das, O.I. Olopade, “Complete allelic analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants in young Nigerian breast cancer patients,” J Med Genet, 2005, Mar;42 (3):276-81.

Salvesen HB, Stefansson I, Kretzschmar EK, Gruber P, MacDonald ND, Ryan A, Jacobs IJ, Akslen LA, Das S. “Significance of PTEN alterations in endometrial carcinoma: a population-based study of mutations, promoter methylation and PTEN protein expression,” Int J Oncol. 2004 Dec;25(6):1615-23.

L. Jacobson, R. Sands, J. Odorico, “Microarray expression analysis of acute rejection in human pancreas allografts,” American Journal of Transplantation Supplement 1, 2001, pp.169.