Amy Grunden
William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor; University Faculty Scholar
Asst. Director, NCARS
Faculty
Area(s) of Expertise
My research program is focused on the study of microorganisms called extremophiles, which are capable of thriving in diverse extreme environmental conditions such as high or low temperatures, high salinity, acidic or alkaline environments. The goals of the extremophile research conducted in my laboratory are first to understand the adaptive mechanisms extremophiles use to survive in harsh environmental conditions and second to exploit these adaptations for biotechnological applications. Research projects currently underway involve using selected extremophile enzymes and synthetic biology approaches to (1) decontaminate toxic organophosphorus-based nerve agents found in some pesticides and chemical warfare agents, (2) generate transgenic plants with increased tolerance to harsh environmental conditions for the purpose of developing plants that can survive in marginal environments, and (3) use extremophile genes to optimize fatty acid production in microalgae for biofuel production and (4) develop a synthetic carbon fixation cycle using archaeal and bacterial enzymes to augment the Calvin-Benson cycle in plant systems. Research in my laboratory has been funded by DOD, DOE, NASA, NCBC, NSF, and the USDA.
Courses Taught:
- MB 351- General Microbiology
- MB 714- Metabolic Regulation
Publications
- Plasma agriculture: Review from the perspective of the plant and its ecosystem, Plasma Processes and Polymers (2021)
- Thermostable endoglucanase gene derived by amplification from the genomic DNA of a cellulose-enriched mixed culture from mudspring water of Mt. Makiling, Laguna, Philippines, WORLD JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY (2020)
- Nitrogen Gas Fixation and Conversion to Ammonium Using Microbial Electrolysis Cells, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2019)
- Public questions spur the discovery of new bacterial species associated with lignin bioconversion of industrial waste, ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE (2019)
- Bacteria and archaea as the sources of traits for enhanced plant phenotypes, BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES (2018)
- Cloning, over-expression, and purification of carbonic anhydrase from an extremophilic bacterium: An introduction to advanced molecular biology, American Biology Teacher (2018)
- Methods for enhancing cyanobacterial stress tolerance to enable improved production of biofuels and industrially relevant chemicals, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (2018)
- Characterization of Clostridium ljungdahlii OTA1: a non-autotrophic hyper ethanol-producing strain, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (2017)
- Construction and setup of a bench-scale algal photosynthetic bioreactor with temperature, light, and ph monitoring for kinetic growth tests, Jove-Journal of Visualized Experiments (2017)
- Escherichia coli O157:H7 acid sensitivity correlates with flocculation phenotype during nutrient limitation, Frontiers in Microbiology (2017)
Education
Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville (1996)
B.S., Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville (1993)