Here is a brief summary of my prior research (a summary of my current research in the Knight Lab to come soon):
1. Developing genetic circuits in bacteria for therapeutic delivery. I developed the Synchronized Lysis Circuit (SLC), which activates the expression of a lysis protein at high cell densities, causing the release of intracellular contents and attenuation of the bacterial population. This circuit was tested in mouse models of cancer to demonstrate its ability to deliver therapeutic proteins inside tumors using engineered bacteria.
2. Investigating the stability and evolution of genetic circuits. Translating results in the lab to a less controlled environment requires genetic constructs which are stable over time and exhibit mutational resilience for predictable behavior.
3. Studying protein expression at the single cell level. Engineered circuits allow us to explore the possible expression states of a protein. This information may help inform the design of future circuits, and possibly the behaviors that manifest in nature.
4. Developing a platform to interface genetic circuits with electrical circuits. It was first observed that bacterial growth could modulate electrical conductivity over a century ago. I’ve worked on leveraging this phenomenon by using population control circuits to make bacteria communicate with electronics. It is a way to transfer biological information, in this case growth dynamics encoded by a gene circuit, to an electrical output. Such an approach may be a starting point to enable the development of hybrid computational devices and portable continuous biosensors with engineered bacteria.