Biography
I work on making different microbes do useful things. Microbes are incredibly versatile systems for producing different types of materials and chemicals. The microbes can produce proteins that we build materials from. These materials can be something like silk, or cellulose. The special thing is that we can use genetic engineering to program so that the microbes make the materials or chemicals that we want. We also study how microbes communicate with each other in order to get them working better together to make the things we want them to do. When the microbes have made components or chemicals to make materials form our real challenge is to actually construct the materials. This involves using different assembly techniques and characterization. In the future I think that this way of using engineered microbes to produce materials and chemical will allow a sustainable green technology.