[Crib-list] SPEAKER: Michael Driscoll (Boston University) -- COMPUTATIONAL RESEARCH in BOSTON SEMINAR -- Friday, 12/01/2006

[Shirley Entzminger]

 		COMPUTATIONAL RESEARCH in BOSTON SEMINAR


DATE:		FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2006
TIME:		12:30 PM
LOCATION:	Building 32, Room 144 (Stata Center)

Pizza and beverages will be provided at 12:15 PM.


Title:		INFERENCE OF A GENOME-WIDE REGULATORY NETWORK FOR THE
 		METAL-BREATHING MICROBE SHEWANELLA ONEIDENSIS MR-1


Speaker:	MICHAEL DRISCOLL (Boston University)


ABSTRACT:

Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is an environmentally ubiquitous, metabolically 
versatile microbe with a broad capacity for the reduction of metals. 
Shewanella's ability to shuttle electrons onto metals -- including arsenic and 
uranium -- has made it a leading candidate for use in microbial fuel cells, 
environmental remediation, and biologically-based sensors.  Though the 
Shewanella genome has been sequenced and many of the enzymes involved in 
electron transport have been identified, little is known about how this 
metabolic machinery is regulated.  To this end, we have designed the first 
Affymetrix microarray for this organism, to observe and its model global gene 
expression.  We have profiled gene expression in hundreds of environmental 
conditions using a fractional factorial experimental design, varying nutrients, 
metallic species, and other factors within known physiological ranges.  We have 
used this expression data to infer the first genome-wide regulatory model for 
Shewanella, and make testable predictions about how we might optimize this 
bacteria for metal reduction in real-world applications.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA  02139
http://www-math.mit.edu/crib

For information on CRiB, contact:

Alan Edelman:  edelman at math.mit.edu
Steven G. Johnson:  stevenj at math.mit.edu
Jeremy Kepner:  kepner at ll.mit.edu