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BMEBT Seminar by Dr. Michael L. Fisher, Southern Connecticut State Univ.

When: Friday, April 29, 2016
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Where: Textiles Building 101E
Description: TOPIC: Optimizing Cyanobacteria for Biomass Harvest and Finding New Uses for Biofuel Producing Strains

Abstract:
One attractive method to produce renewable energy is the development of biofuels made by cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria can be engineered to produce biofuels, biofuel precursors or valuable bioproducts from CO2, sunlight and water. A major obstacle to economical production of such bioproducts is harvesting cyanobacteria from their liquid media. Centrifugation, for instance, is energy intensive and increases production cost. We developed a novel process for biomass harvest in which cyanobacteria were engineered to express genes encoding type V secreted adhesins, which cause the cyanobacteria to precipitate from their culture medium without centrifugation.

In a separate project, we are working to determine whether biofuel producing strains of cyanobacteria can be utilized as feedstock for heterotrophic organisms using R. eutropha as a model organism in a burgeoning co-culture system.

Brief bio:
Dr. Michael L. Fisher received his undergraduate BS in Biology from Siena College in Loudonville, NY. He earned his PhD in Microbiology at Tufts University in 2008. There, his research focused on the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis during pneumonic yersiniosis. For his first postdoctoral position, he studied genetic variation in M. tuberculosis at the Harvard School of Public Health. Wishing to establish a research program that could include undergraduates, Dr. Fisher took a second postdoc with Dr. Roy Curtiss III at ASU. There he worked on cyanobacterial genetics and strain optimization for biofuel production. Dr. Fisher is currently an assistant professor of biology at Southern Connecticut State University where his teaching focuses on Infectious diseases and he continues his research on cyanobacterial genetics.
Contact: BMEBT Seminar Series
Topical Areas: University Community, Biology, Bioengineering, College of Engineering