RESEARCH
Overview
Our laboratory is interested in identifying and developing microbes from environmental communities well adapted for the deconstruction and upcycling of complex polymeric materials. In so doing, we develop sustainable routes to a variety of materials and chemicals. We employ systems level -omics approaches to identify key players in these complex communities that we then isolate and reprogram with synthetic biology for various applications. We are also interested in applying these systems biology approaches broadly to diverse cellular systems to tackle engineering applications.
Our laboratory is interested in identifying and developing microbes from environmental communities well adapted for the deconstruction and upcycling of complex polymeric materials. In so doing, we develop sustainable routes to a variety of materials and chemicals. We employ systems level -omics approaches to identify key players in these complex communities that we then isolate and reprogram with synthetic biology for various applications. We are also interested in applying these systems biology approaches broadly to diverse cellular systems to tackle engineering applications.
Project Areas
Materials deconstruction and upcycling
Polymeric materials are stable carbon rich molecules that are uneconomical to degrade once they've exceeded their useful lifetimes. We pursue biological strategies informed by environmental microbes and consortia isolated from animal microbial ecosystems to accelerate the degradation of these materials. We are focused on the degradation of lignocellulose for sustainable chemical production, and the recycling of plastic wastes.
References:
Vaccine production & biohybrid nanomaterials
Viruses are well-structured nanoscale protein based materials whose morphology are encoded within the structure of its protein subunits. Their surfaces are chemically active, mediating interactions with diverse materials and cells for applications ranging from biotemplated nanomaterial synthesis to immune cell activation. These structures may be functionalized with ligands and programmed to carry various cargo. We engineer the structure of these nanomaterials to tune their properties for diverse applications.
References:
Synthetic Biology
Implementing new functions such as chemical production, computing, and biosensing in microbes requires precise control of key genes, enzymes, and metabolites. Our ability to regulate these players, however, is directly related to the amount of resources available and our ability to make targeted intervention at appropriate sequences. We aim to develop tools that can streamline organism engineering, accurately detect these limits and tune our programming to continuously function regardless of its surroundings.
References: Solomon, K.V., et al., ACS Syn Bio., 2013.; Solomon, K.V., Sanders, T.M., Prather, K.L.J., Metabol. Eng., 2012.
Non-model Microbes, Microbial Ecology, & Systems Biology
Microbes exist in all environments and compete with each other, and our engineered systems, for survival. This competition is mediated through chemical compounds that can dramatically affect the ability of our engineered microbes to execute their programmed tasks. We seek to understand this chemical interplay to design better microbial platforms, and to answer fundamental questions about the biosynthetic potential of microbial communities. By exploring these microbial communities, we also identify new platforms with exciting properties for biotechnology.
References: Li, G. et al. Fungal Diversity, 2016. Solomon, K.V., et al. Science, 2016.; Solomon, K.V., et al. Anaerobe, 2016.; Haitjema, C.H., et al. Biotechnol. & Bioeng., 2014; Solomon, K.V., et al. Curr. Op. Biotechnol., 2014.
Materials deconstruction and upcycling
Polymeric materials are stable carbon rich molecules that are uneconomical to degrade once they've exceeded their useful lifetimes. We pursue biological strategies informed by environmental microbes and consortia isolated from animal microbial ecosystems to accelerate the degradation of these materials. We are focused on the degradation of lignocellulose for sustainable chemical production, and the recycling of plastic wastes.
References:
- ET Hillman, M Li, CA Hooker, J Englaender, IR Wheeldon, KV Solomon*, Hydrolysis of lignocellulose by anaerobic fungi produces free sugars and organic acids for two-stage fine chemical production with Kluyveromyces marxianus, Biotechnology Progress, in press (2021).
- C Hooker, E Hillman, J Overton, A Ortiz-Velez, M Schacht, A Hunnicutt, N Mosier, KV Solomon*, Hydrolysis of untreated lignocellulosic feedstock is independent of S-lignin composition in newly classified anaerobic fungal isolate, Piromyces sp. UH-31, Biotechnology for Biofuels, 11:293 (2018).
- KV Solomon, CH Haitjema, JK Henske, SP Gilmore, D Borges-Rivera, A Lipzen, HM Brewer, SO Purvine, AT Wright, MK Theodorou, IV Grigoriev, A Regev, DA Thompson, MA O’Malley. Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass degrading enzymes, Science, 351: 1192-1195 (2016).
Vaccine production & biohybrid nanomaterials
Viruses are well-structured nanoscale protein based materials whose morphology are encoded within the structure of its protein subunits. Their surfaces are chemically active, mediating interactions with diverse materials and cells for applications ranging from biotemplated nanomaterial synthesis to immune cell activation. These structures may be functionalized with ligands and programmed to carry various cargo. We engineer the structure of these nanomaterials to tune their properties for diverse applications.
References:
- AJ Vaidya, KV Solomon*, Surface Functionalization of Rod Shaped Viral-Like Particles for Biomedical Applications. ACS Appl Bio Mater 5 (5): 1980-1989 (2022)
- KZ Lee, V Basnayake Pussepitiya, YH Lee, S Loesch-Fries, M Harris, S Hemmati, KV Solomon*, Engineering Tobacco Mosaic Virus and its Virus-Like-Particles for Synthesis of Biotemplated Nanomaterials, Biotechnology Journal, 16 (4): 200311 (2021).
- YH Lee‡, KZ Lee‡, RG. Susler, CA. Scott, L Wang, LS Loesch-Fries, MT Harris, KV Solomon*, Bacterial production of Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus Biotemplates for Palladium Nanoparticle Growth, ACS Applied Nano Materials, 3 (12): 12080 - 12086 (2020).
Synthetic Biology
Implementing new functions such as chemical production, computing, and biosensing in microbes requires precise control of key genes, enzymes, and metabolites. Our ability to regulate these players, however, is directly related to the amount of resources available and our ability to make targeted intervention at appropriate sequences. We aim to develop tools that can streamline organism engineering, accurately detect these limits and tune our programming to continuously function regardless of its surroundings.
References: Solomon, K.V., et al., ACS Syn Bio., 2013.; Solomon, K.V., Sanders, T.M., Prather, K.L.J., Metabol. Eng., 2012.
Non-model Microbes, Microbial Ecology, & Systems Biology
Microbes exist in all environments and compete with each other, and our engineered systems, for survival. This competition is mediated through chemical compounds that can dramatically affect the ability of our engineered microbes to execute their programmed tasks. We seek to understand this chemical interplay to design better microbial platforms, and to answer fundamental questions about the biosynthetic potential of microbial communities. By exploring these microbial communities, we also identify new platforms with exciting properties for biotechnology.
References: Li, G. et al. Fungal Diversity, 2016. Solomon, K.V., et al. Science, 2016.; Solomon, K.V., et al. Anaerobe, 2016.; Haitjema, C.H., et al. Biotechnol. & Bioeng., 2014; Solomon, K.V., et al. Curr. Op. Biotechnol., 2014.
