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Ryan T. Gill

Assistant Professor, Patten Fellow and

C2B2 Managing Director

DLC 1B77

(303)492-2627
rtg@colorado.edu

Education

Ph.D., University of Maryland at College Park, 1997-1999
MS, University of Maryland at College Park, 1995-1997
BS, The Johns Hopkins University, 1989-1993

Awards

• 2007 Dupont Young Professor Award

• 2007 Rising Star Award, Big 12 Center for Economic Development, Innovation and Commercialization

• 2006 Provosts Award for Achievement, University of Colorado at Boulder

• 2005 Patten Assistant Professor Endowed Chair, University of Colorado

• 2005 National Science Foundation CAREER Award

• 2005 National Institutes of Health CAREER (K) Development Award

• 2004 Subaru Educator Spotlight Award

• 2003 CU-Boulder, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Undergraduate Advising Award

• 2001 Vern Norviel Junior Faculty Award

Selected Publications

Warnecke, T., Lynch, M., Karimpour-Fard, A., Sandoval, N., and Gill, R.T.2008. A genomics approach to improve the analysis and design of strain selections. Metabolic Engineering. In-Press.  

Karimpour-Fard, A., Hunter, L., and Gill, R.T*. 2008. Investigation of factors affecting prediction of protein-protein interaction networks by phylogenetic profiling. BMC Genomics. 8:393. (IF=4.1).

Bonomo, J., Lynch, M., Warnecke, T., Price, J., and Gill, R.T.*2008.Genome-scale analysis of anti-metabolite directed strain engineering. Metabolic Engineering. 10:109-120. (IF=3.0).

Coenye, T., Drevinek, P., Mahenthiralingam, E., Ali-Shah, S., Gill, R.T., Vandamme, P., and Ussery, D.* 2007. Identification of putative non-coding RNA genes in the Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 genome. FEMS Microbiology Letters. 276:1:83-92. (IF=2.1).

Karimpour-Fard, A., Deitweiler, C., Hunter, L. and Gill, R.T.* 2007. Cross-Species Clustered Co-Conservation: A new method for generating protein interaction networks. Genome Biology. 8:R185.

Lynch, M., Warnecke, T., and Gill, R.T.* 2007. SCALES: SCalar Analysis of Library Enrichments. Nature Methods.4:87-93

Research Interest

Directed Genome Evolution: New Tools and Applications

Our research falls within the general fields of metabolic engineering, directed evolution, and genomics and is directed primarily towards the development biorefining processes for the efficient production of commodity (organic-acids) and specialty (drugs) chemicals. We are generally focused on the development of new i) tools for strain engineering (i.e. genome shuffling), ii) methods for efficiently determining the genetic basis of so engineered strains (i.e. functional genomics), and iii) frameworks for rationalizing relationships identified between genome structure and function. We are specifically focused on improving understanding of how organismal function/fitness can be improved, both from a fundamental standpoint as well as an applied perspective, where improved fitness translates to more efficient industrial bioprocesses. Our specific projects include:

• Optimization of genome-shuffling in gram-negative bacteria
• Evolution of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Reverse engineering antibiotic sensitivity into clinically resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Evolution of stress tolerance in Escherichia coli
• Inverse metabolic engineering of chemical production in E. coli
• Metabolic engineering of human drug metabolites in E. coli
• Construction and validation of DNA microarrays using novel technologies

 

Our research laboratory is located within the newly opened Discovery Learning Center. The DLC is a unique facility designed around the idea of research as a valuable learning tool. The focus is on vertically integrated research teams where faculty mix with post-docs, graduate, undergraduate, and even high school students in a collaborative effort to address specific research goals.  Our research has been funded by grants from the NSF, NIH, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Agilent, and has included collaborations with Cargill, Inc., and Agilent, Inc.