User:GMcArthurIV

George McArthur IV, Ph.D. student, Virginia Commonwealth University

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George McArthur IV (photo to come)

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.. –Albert Einstein

Welcome! I'm a first-year grad student at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA and a member of Dr. Stephen Fong's Systems Bioengineering Lab in the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. Please feel free to email me.

Research Interests

My research is centered around two areas, cellular engineering and process engineering. I am particularly interested in developing an industrial-scale biofuel production process. In addition, I hope to contribute to the advancement of foundational synthetic biology technology and education, especially at the undergraduate level.

Microbial Cellular Engineering

The conversion of lignocellulosic raw materials to molecules suitable for liquid transportation fuel can be acheived via microbial metabolism. However, this does not usually occur naturally in a single microorganism nor does it occur efficiently. Therefore, novel metabolism must be developed to realize the desired chemical transformation. Synthetic biology (specifically, synthetic genomics) offers an approach to truly engineering metabolic, regulatory and signaling pathways by providing well-characterized genetic modules (e.g., like those found in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts) that can be interchanged and composed into larger, more complex systems. Eventually, whole-cell systems may be engineered to function or behave in a predicted manner (e.g., economically viable production of fuel from inexpensive biomass).

Biochemical Process Engineering

Although engineered microorganisms may synthesize the desired product or products, separation processes are necessary for purification. In addition, the bioreactor in which the microbes are grown must be optimized for the particular process and the substrate must be appropriately treated upstream of the bioreactor. This work is focused on the development of an optimal bioreactor for the growth of the platform organism and the production of the desired product. In addition, a novel extraction system is being developed for the facile separation of product from culture broth.

Presentations

• Talk/poster - Harvesting cellulose and light to power butanol biosynthesis: A synthetic biology approach to metabolic engineering, iGEM 2007, 3-4 November 2007, MIT, Cambridge, MA
• Poster - Harvesting cellulose and light to power butanol biosynthesis: A synthetic biology approach to metabolic engineering, IBE 2008 annual meeting, 6-9 March 2008, Chapel Hill, NC
• Talk - The Virginia Genetically Engineered Machine Team, BioSysBio 2008, 20-22 April 2008, Imperial College London, London, UK
• Poster - A bottom-up approach to synthetic biology education: From iGEM teams to undergraduate curricula, Synthetic Biology 4.0, 10-12 October 2008, HKUST, Hong Kong, China

Education

Virginia Commonwealth University

• Ph.D., Chemical and Life Science Engineering

University of Virginia (2008)

• B.S., Chemical Engineering (Biotechnology Concentration}
• B.A., Music (Composition Concentration)
• Minor in Biology
• Undergraduate Thesis Portfolio
  • The Development of a First Course in the Fundamentals of Synthetic Biology at the University of Virginia
    • Biological Systems Design was offered in Spring 2008!
  • The VGEM Team: A Model for Enhancing Engineering Education
  • A Regulatory Framework for the Constructive Development of Synthetic Biology

Links

• Virginia Genetically Engineered Machine Team
• Synthetic Biology community
• Synthetic Genomics (the company)
• Sorcerer II Expedition
• Molecular Marine Biology Laboratory
• Marine Biotech
• Institute of Biological Engineering
• Gossamer Fidelity (the band)