The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $22M to UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) for a collaboration with UC Riverside (UCR) and Cal Poly Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ (CPP) to establish a for Extreme and Exceptional Fungi, Archaea, and Bacteria (ExFAB). This is the first joint effort of UC and CSU schools to study extremophiles.
Most microbes cultured and studied in university labs are chosen because of the ease with which they can be collected and grown. Those are not necessarily the most useful. Imagine extreme microbes that can eat plastic waste, forever chemicals, or help clean up oil spills. They exist, and ExFAB will further our understanding of them.
Bioremediation is one of the research themes of the grant. The other two themes are biosynthesis, and rules of life from extreme examples. Biosynthesis will seek to use the unique properties of the microbes to engineer useful chemicals. Rules of life refers to the knowledge that will be gained which can lead to advances in biotechnology.
Cal Poly Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Associate Professor Jamie Snyder, biological sciences, is a Co-PI on the grant. She’s an expert in thermophilic archaea and archaeal viruses and her graduate work involved looking for viruses in Yellowstone. Snyder points out that Thermus aquaticus, a thermophilic bacteria found in Yellowstone in 1969, is what gave us Taq polymerase that is used in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
The discovery of that bacteria, and the thermostable enzyme derived from it, revolutionized biotechnology, allowing scientists to amplify DNA sequences and genotype them. An advance made possible by the study of extremophiles.
Michelle O’Malley from UCSB is principal investigator (PI) and director of ExFAB. O’Malley is an expert in “wild microbe” enrichment and anaerobic microbial synthetic biology for engineering extreme microbes. The team includes Co-PI David Valentine from UCSB, whose focus will be marine microbes, Co-Director Ian Wheeldon from UCR who is an expert in synthetic biology and engineering non-conventional microbes, and Jason Stajich from UCR, who is an expert in mycology, and will develop and apply computational analysis of genomes of fungi.*
Cultivation of the extreme microbes will be done at UCSB and UCR where automation and robotics will be used to handle cultures. Grant funding will allow CPP to purchase a high throughput DNA sequencer for genotyping and phenotyping. When users of ExFAB want to sequence, it will be done at CPP. Having the sequencer at CPP will provide exceptional opportunities to upper-level students and faculty.
“A major component is to involve graduate students from all the CSUs and diversify the biotech workforce,” Snyder said. The educational program will be piloted here at CPP. Students will be trained on the robotic equipment at UCR or UCSB as well as the high throughput sequencer. Spending a summer at UCR or UCSB will provide intensive research experiences for students interested in pursuing their Ph.D.
Snyder said, “This is really where the industry is going, robotics and automated systems. Students will be able to learn more about the biotech industry, participate in workshops, and present at symposia.” This collaboration will provide access to equipment that is typically only available in industry or at national laboratories. It will prepare more students to succeed in the STEM workforce.
*From the full project narrative.