Enhancing biofuel production through synthetic protein fusions
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Biology
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gavin Thomas (Primary Supervisor) |
Publications
Willson B
(2019)
Evolutionary dynamics of membrane transporters and channels: enhancing function through fusion
in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development
Willson BJ
(2019)
Enhanced functionalisation of major facilitator superfamily transporters via fusion of C-terminal protein domains is both extensive and varied in bacteria.
in Microbiology (Reading, England)
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BB/M011151/1 | 30/09/2015 | 29/09/2023 | |||
| 1792408 | Studentship | BB/M011151/1 | 30/09/2016 | 30/03/2021 |
| Description | I have produced a system for easily fusing membrane proteins to a downstream enzyme or fluorescent probe. From this I have determined the stability of a family of transporters, but also determined the negative impact that fusing enzymes directly to the membrane protein can have a negative impact on the downstream enzyme function. This validates my interest in the scaffold proteins to overcome such limitations. |
| Exploitation Route | Ideally the golden gate plasmid could be used for the fusion of membrane proteins to downstream enzymes. While this may impact the activity of the downstream enzyme, when functional it could be used for easily swapping out parts of interest - i.e. studying different transporters in the membrane by fusion to fluorophores - using tagging proteins such as biotinylation proteins fused to a membrane transporter to determine what the transporter interacts with. Of industrial releveance this could be used to increase sugar metabolism for biofuel industry. |
| Sectors | Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Other |
| Description | Chemistry at work |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Demonstrated how to "cook" an egg without boiling in order to show how different chemicals react with egg white. Assisted with event planner to keep an eye on students and explain questions relating to the experiment. Event featured multiple secondary school students, years 9-10, and took place at the University of York chemistry department. Event was organised by NYBEP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | YorNight - Local outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Demonstrated the potential of biofuels by using them to power a toy boat in a race. We discussed production of the combustable biofuel, asked children watching to predict the winning boat and demonstrated how burning of the biofuel would facilitate motion. Saturday evening event organised by the University of York and visited by many families, involved multiple groups from various science disciplines. Our lab hosted a series of microbiology related workshops and activities to demonstrate the role of microbes in biofuels, disease and odour. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/yornight/2018/ |