Research Areas
I pursued 3 distinct yet thematically similiar projects during my PhD in heavy metal chemistries and waste water management
Engineering sulfer
reducing yeasts
The image represents cross-sections of yeast that have bioaccumulated heavy metals on their surface, as well as internally.
Results of this work could be shown visibly by how clear waste water would become after several rounds of remediation using this technique.
To deploy in the real world, these engineered yeast can be packed much like traditional chromatography filters to sequester contaminates as they pass, as shown by the chance in color.
Designing yeast
hyperaccumulators
This is a protein structure of a metal transporter that was strategically engineered to uptake heavy metals inside yeast.
To prove utilization of engineered transporters, yeast were stained with several markers to show transporter expression, namely on their cell membrane and vacuoles.
To rationally create combinatorial transporter mutations, a clever density-based assay was used to filter yeast which accumulated more metal, or alternatively heavier.
Creating
yeast sponges
Proteins were engineered to act as anchors for heavy metal collection. Data showed that these modifications enhanced metal capture by 3-5 fold.
We worked with the elegantly structured synthetase family, shortly known as GS which structure allowed for 12 identical copies of potential heavy metal binding partners.
The proteins were engineered with anchors, as well as the innate ability to assemble into stalk-like strucutres, further increasing capacity and easing capture due to their increased density.
Collaborations
My PhD work was used in subsequent projects, and often in other multi-disciplinary fields
Programmable
Living Materials
SCOBY's are symbiotic films of yeast and bacteria (normally found in Kombucha), these films were engineered to instead soak up heavy metals.
The collaboration was made possible through MIT's Synthetic Biology Center with Zijay Tang of Tim Lu's Lab. I highly recommend following their work.
Artificial
Photosynthesis
Surprisingly, heavy metals which were removed and converted into mineralized products had light-emitting properties which could interestingly be used for photosynthetic and energy applications.
This work is made possible with Shalmalee Pandit from the Belcher Lab, with her innovative idea of taking my work of biomineralized heavy metals and recycling them as reusable energy sources.
Unplublishd work
I investigated other projects, but due to constrints were never fully realized into full publications
Review on
Waste Management
A world map representing water scarcity in the world (more scarce, the darker), in part due to poor water management and access to water technologies.
To understand the world's water problem, a case-study of the US 150 years of water management policy can show some habits and problems in today's water crisis.
Machine Learning
Metallo-Organic Bonds
Almost 70% of proteins have some sort of metal-binding partner, and this behavior can be described if we look at the pattern of all of these proteins holistically.
Pattern recognition can be done using machine learning methods, in this case unsupervised algorithms to uncover patterns in metal protein binding.
A new cost-loss algorithm was created to guide a semi-supervised machine learning model to understand which metal binding chelators were most favorable.
Awards
Grants and funders which I had the fortunate opportunity to work with
NSF Graduate
Fellowship
MIT Presidential Fellowship
Bose
Fellowship
CEHS
Pilot Program
Thesis
My thesis — a research summary that took almost 5 years to accomplish
Dissertation
My dissertation was approved by Professor K. Dane Wittrup (Chair), Cathy L. Drennan, and Angela M. Belcher (Advisor). Along with my lab, this was a concerted effort.
Without my friends, family, and mentors, none of this would have been possible. Thank you to those who have helped me along the way.
Patents
Research should not be just research, my goal was to achieve a physical application in the real world
US2018/0237321
Patent titled, Engineered yeast as a method for bioremediation submitted on 2017-02-02 and assigned to MIT.
Research Areas
I pursued 3 distinct yet thematically similiar projects during my PhD in heavy metal chemistries and waste water management
Collaborations
My PhD work was used in subsequent projects, and often in other multi-disciplinary fields
Programmable
Living Materials-1
Programmable
Living Materials-2
Unplublishd work
I investigated other projects, but due to constrints were never fully realized into full publications
Awards
Grants and funders which I had the fortunate opportunity to work with
NSF Graduate
Fellowship
no link provided
MIT Presidential Fellowship
no link provided
Bose
Fellowship
no link provided
CEHS
Pilot Program
no link provided
Thesis
My thesis — a research summary that took almost 5 years to accomplish
Patents
Research should not be just research, my goal was to achieve a physical application in the real world
