User:Karmella Haynes
I am a new member of OpenWetWare!
Contact Info
Dr. Karmella A. Haynes, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Department of Systems Biology
200 Longwood Ave. WAB 536
Boston, MA 02115
phone: 617-432-6406
fax: 617-432-5012
karmella_haynes at hms dot harvard dot edu
Education
- 2006, Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Washington University in St. Louis
- 1999, B.S. in Biology, Florida A&M University
Links
Calculating Bacteria: Real Computer Bugs?
A group of scientists reports in the Journal of Biological Engineering that they have created specially modified E. coli bacteria capable of performing one specific type of calculation — a puzzle known as the "pancake flipping problem." Karmella Haynes, one of the researchers, discusses the prospects for biologically based computing, and ways in which calculating bacteria might be useful.
Research interests
Synthetic Biology
Currently as a postdoc in the lab of Pam Silver at Harvard Medical School, I am exploring the use of eukaryotic proteins as modular parts that can be used to build rationally designed devices in living cells. The field of synthetic biology aims to engineer tiny machines, fashioned from characterized DNA and protein components, that perform useful functions, like synthesizing useful metabolites, attacking tumors, and detecting compounds in the environment.
Chromatin, An Untapped Resource for Parts
Nature provides an abundant source of functional proteins for designing new systems. To date, chromatin proteins remain an untapped resource. Particular chromatin proteins called "effectors" have the remarkable ability to discriminate and bind to very specific post-translational modifications of proteins called histones. Can a synthetic protein device be engineered to read histone modifications? Can we use this type of device as a new tool to monitor changes in histone modifications in single living cells? Accomplishing these goals will allow scientists to probe histone modification at unprecedented resolution, thus furthering our understanding of the dynamics of histone modifications associated with cancer and normal cell development.
Publications
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a pmid=19948487
- Haynes KA, Broderick ML, Brown AD, Butner TL, Dickson JO, Harden WL, Heard LH, Jessen EL, Malloy KJ, Ogden BJ, Rosemond S, Simpson S, Zwack E, Campbell AM, Eckdahl TT, Heyer LJ, and Poet JL. Engineering bacteria to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem. J Biol Eng. 2008 May 20;2:8. DOI:10.1186/1754-1611-2-8 |
- Riddle NC, Leung W, Haynes KA, Granok H, Wuller J, and Elgin SC. An investigation of heterochromatin domains on the fourth chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 2008 Mar;178(3):1177-91. DOI:10.1534/genetics.107.081828 |
- Haynes KA, Gracheva E, and Elgin SC. A Distinct type of heterochromatin within Drosophila melanogaster chromosome 4. Genetics. 2007 Mar;175(3):1539-42. DOI:10.1534/genetics.106.066407 |
- Haynes KA, Caudy AA, Collins L, and Elgin SC. Element 1360 and RNAi components contribute to HP1-dependent silencing of a pericentric reporter. Curr Biol. 2006 Nov 21;16(22):2222-7. DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.035 |
- Haynes KA, Leibovitch BA, Rangwala SH, Craig C, and Elgin SC. Analyzing heterochromatin formation using chromosome 4 of Drosophila melanogaster. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2004;69:267-72. DOI:10.1101/sqb.2004.69.267 |
Science Art Gallery
In addition to science research, I paint and draw. Below are pieces that have a scientific theme. You can view my other work at http://www.karmellahaynes.com
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Tessellation of Drosophila Heads, 2006
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"Metastasis" cells invading a paint pallette, 2005
