Paul Jaschke
Academic Appointments
- Postdoctoral Research fellow, Bioengineering
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 721-5884
Professional Overview
Honors and Awards
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (11/2010-11/2012)
- SB5.0 International Conference Travel Award, Synthetic Biology 5.0 Conference (2011)
- Best Presentation at Life Sciences Institute Conference, Sigma-Aldrich (2009)
- Beverley Green Award for outstanding work in photosynthesis research, Western Photosynthesis Conference (2008)
- University of BC Graduate Fellowship, The University of British Columbia (2008)
- The Pacific Century Graduate Scholarship, The University of British Columbia (2008)
Professional Education
| B.Sc. (Honors): | University of Alberta, Biochemistry (2003) |
| Doctor of Philosophy: | University of British Columbia (2010) |
Stanford Advisors
| Andrew Endy: | Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor |
Lab Affiliations
- Andrew Endy, Endy Lab (11/3/2010 )
Internet Links
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
Design and construction of synthetic genomes should enable powerful new approaches to the field of bioengineering and biotechnology applications, such as constructing new metabolic pathways in bacteria to synthesize medicines. However, due to the overwhelming complexity of biological systems, most designs to date have largely recapitulated natural sequences.
My research focuses on developing new methods of simplifying synthetic genomes. I chose to use a small lytic coliphage called phiX174 for my research. The intricate architecture of the circular 5.4 kb phiX174 genome encodes 11 gene products via highly overlapped protein coding sequences spanning multiple reading frames. The combination of small size and complexity makes the phiX174 genome an excellent test case.
Building synthetic phage genomes has been hampered in the past by the extreme toxicity of these viruses to E. coli. Recently, I developed a method that solves this problem by using yeast as a platform to assemble phiX174 genomes via homologous recombination (Jaschke PR, et al. 2012. Virology, in press). Using this method I have decompressed the phiX174 genome (i.e. separated all gene sequences), and showed that the virus is fully functional without gene overlaps.
My future goal is to pioneer a new method of simplifying synthetic genomes, a process I call 'negative genomics'. I will develop this method by systematically identifying and eliminating all cryptic DNA sequences from the phiX174 genome. Negative genomics will enable the building of more reliable and predictable synthetic genomes. Specifically, my work could facilitate concise engineering of bacteriophage genomes for improved diagnostics, next generation antimicrobials, and attenuated vaccines.
Publications
- A fully decompressed synthetic bacteriophage øX174 genome assembled and archived in yeast. Virology. 2012; (2): 278-84
- A BchD (magnesium chelatase) mutant of rhodobacter sphaeroides synthesizes zinc bacteriochlorophyll through novel zinc-containing intermediates. J Biol Chem. 2011; (23): 20313-22
- Electron transfer in the Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction center assembled with zinc bacteriochlorophyll. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009; (21): 8537-42
- Electron Transfer in Rhodobacter sphaeroides Reaction Centers Containing Zn-Bacteriochlorophylls: A Hole-Burning Study Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 2012; (10): 3457-3466
- Modification of the genome of Rhodobacter sphaeroides and construction of synthetic operons. Methods Enzymol. 2011: 519-38
- Modification of a French pressure cell to improve microbial cell disruption. Photosynth Res. 2009; (1): 95-7
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