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Welcome to the Kerfeld Lab Website!
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Lab News:
September 24, 2018
John Steele joined the Kerfeld Lab West as a postdoctoral researcher!
July 24, 2018
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Our new paper about engineering the Haliangium ochraceum BMC shell is out in Nature Communications!
Programmed loading and rapid purification of engineered bacterial microcompartment shells Andrew Hagen, Markus Sutter, Nancy Sloan & Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) (pdf link) Check out the MSU-PRL article about this paper here! |
May 31, 2018
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Tina was awarded with the prestigious Marie Curie fellowship!
The fellowship will provide up to $300,000 over 3 years for her project that focuses on cyanobacterial photoprotection. (MSU Article here) |
May 14, 2018
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Han won the 2018 Anton Lang Memorial Research Excellence Award!
The Anton Lang Memorial Fund was established in honor of the founding director of the MSU Plant Research Laboratory, who passed away in 1996. The award recognizes a graduate student and a postdoctoral research associate who exemplify the research excellence, ideas, dedication, and vision of Anton Lang. Take a look at the article on the PRL website! |
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April 27, 2018
Congratulations to Nancy who got accepted into a masters program in Microbiology at Loyola University in Chicago where she will start in the fall of this year! We are sorry to see her go and wish her all the best for her future studies.
April 12, 2018
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Congratulations to Aiko who was awarded with a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
Check out this article on the PRL website for more details! Aiko also got mentioned on Natsci's story and MSU today. |
March 19, 2018
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Clem is featured in a blog post published by Nature Reviews in Microbiology!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgYevvOhxMS/?taken-by=nature.research https://naturemicrobiologycommunity.nature.com/posts/31150-not-a-just-pouch-of-enzymes-bacteria-also-have-organelles |
March 16, 2018
Tina Dominguez has been selected to be the GRS chair for the Photosensory receptors and signal transductions meeting in 2020 in Hong Kong!
March 9, 2018
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Our paper with KT Scott and colleagues was published:
Genomes of ubiquitous marine and hypersaline Hydrogenovibrio, Thiomicrorhabdus, and Thiomicrospira spp. encode a diversity of mechanisms to sustain chemolithoautotrophy in heterogeneous environments Scott KM, Williams J, Porter CMB, Russel S, [...] Stamatis D, Varghese N, Woyke T, Boden R, Freyermuth SK, Kerfeld CA (link) |
March 5, 2018
Our Bacterial Microcompartment review is out in Nature Reviews !
Bacterial microcompartments
Cheryl A. Kerfeld, Clement Aussignargues, Jan Zarzycki, Fei Cai, Markus Sutter
(link) (readcube)
Bacterial microcompartments
Cheryl A. Kerfeld, Clement Aussignargues, Jan Zarzycki, Fei Cai, Markus Sutter
(link) (readcube)
February 15. 2018
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East meets West at the annual Kerfeld Lab retreat,
this time at the Marconi conference center in Point Reyes. |
January 24, 2018
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Our paper with the Beck lab just came out:
Fluorescence and Excited State Conformational Dynamics of the Orange Carotenoid Protein Jason K. Gurchiek, Han Bao, Maria Agustina Domínguez-Martín, Sarah E. McGovern, Claire E. Marquardt, Jerome D. Roscioli, Soumen Ghosh, Cheryl A. Kerfeld, and Warren F. Beck (link) |
January 22, 2018
Alex Witte joined the lab as a research technician and Matt Melnicki has rejoined the the group!
November 17, 2017
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Many thanks to our undergraduate Ana for all her work in the Kerfeld lab over the last two years and congratulations for being accepted into the Wayne State University's Doctor of Pharmacy program where she will be starting in in the Fall 2018 semester. Good luck for your future studies!
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October 17, 2017
October 16, 2017
Lauren Achtemeier joined the Kerfeld Lab East as a Research Associate!
Lauren Achtemeier joined the Kerfeld Lab East as a Research Associate!
October 2, 2017
An exciting article featuring our Nature Plants paper on the MSU-PRL website! Identifying a new family of light-responsive proteins
An exciting article featuring our Nature Plants paper on the MSU-PRL website! Identifying a new family of light-responsive proteins
September 29, 2017
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Our paper about a new BMC-associated Flavodoxin is out! Structural and Functional Characterization of a Short-Chain Flavodoxin Associated with a Non-Canonical PDU Bacterial Microcompartment Plegaria JS, Sutter M, Ferlez B, Aussignargues C, Niklas J, Poluektov OG, Fromwiller C, TerAvest M, Utschig LM, Tiede DM, Kerfeld CA (link) Check out this article for more details: How to build artificial nanofactories to power our futures: Logistics |
September 25, 2017
Our 2014 analysis of microcompartment types is in the top 25% of the most cited articles in PLoS Computational Biology! (link)
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September 22, 2017
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Our new review about carboxysomes just came out!
Carboxysomes: metabolic modules for CO2 fixation Turmo A, Gonzalez-Esquer CR, Kerfeld CA (link) |
September 19, 2017
Our research featured on the MSU-PRL website: Turning the evolutionary clock back on a light-sensitive protein
September 11, 2017
The print version of our paper about CcmK type proteins in Cyanobacteria is out:
β-Carboxysome bioinformatics: identification and evolution of new bacterial microcompartment protein gene classes and core locus constraints.
Manuel Sommer, Fei Cai, Matthew R. Melnicki, Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link)
β-Carboxysome bioinformatics: identification and evolution of new bacterial microcompartment protein gene classes and core locus constraints.
Manuel Sommer, Fei Cai, Matthew R. Melnicki, Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link)
Aug 14, 2017
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Our new publication in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B is out!
A bioarchitectonic approach to the modular engineering of metabolism Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) (free pdf) (free fulltext) |
Aug 8, 2017
Our Science paper has been recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field
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July 25, 2017
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Han wins a poster award at the 2017 Photosynthesis Gordon Research Conference! For more detail, check out this article: Han Bao wins Gordon Research Conference award |
July 10, 2017
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Our work characterizing new family members of the OCP is out in Nature Plants!
Additional families of orange carotenoid proteins in the photoprotective system of cyanobacteria Han Bao, Matthew R. Melnicki, Emily G. Pawlowski, Markus Sutter, Marco Agostoni, Sigal Lechno-Yossef, Fei Cai, Beronda L. Montgomery & Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
July 4, 2017
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Our review in New Phytologist/Tansley Reviews is out:
Structure, function and evolution of the cyanobacterial orange carotenoid protein and its homologs Cheryl A. Kerfeld, Matthew R. Melnicki, Markus Sutter, Maria Agustina Dominguez-Martin (link) |
June 22, 2017
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Our complete HO shell structure is out in today's issue of Science!
Assembly principles and structure of a 6.5-MDa bacterial microcompartment shell Markus Sutter, Basil Greber, Clement Aussignargues, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) MSU news coverage with video: (link) LBNL coverage: (link) MSU-PRL article: (link) Free (download) links: (reprint) (fulltext) |
May 16, 2017
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Our paper about the CTD-NTD interaction of the orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is out!
Synthetic OCP Heterodimers are Photoactive and Recapitulate the Fusion of Two Primitive Carotenoproteins in the Evolution of Cyanobacterial Photoprotection. Lechno-Yossef S, Melnicki MR, Bao H, Montgomery BL, Kerfeld CA. (link) |
May 12, 2017
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Kerfeld Lab members at the Plant Research Laboratory Department's Gutter Ball XXIII event.
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May 8, 2017
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Clem won the 2017 Anton Lang Memorial Research Excellence Award!
The Anton Lang Memorial Fund was established in honor of the founding director of the Plant Research Laboratory, who passed away in 1996. The award recognizes a graduate student and a postdoctoral research associate who exemplify the research excellence, ideas, dedication, and vision of Anton Lang. For more detail, check out this article: 2017 Anton Lang Memorial Award Winners Announced! |
April 20, 2017
Our paper about a bioinformatic analysis of CcmK type proteins in cyanobacteria is out!
β-Carboxysome bioinformatics: identification and evolution of new bacterial microcompartment protein gene classes and core locus constraints.
Manuel Sommer, Fei Cai, Matthew R. Melnicki, Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link)
Here is the exciting article featuring this paper! How to build an artificial nano-factory to power our futures
β-Carboxysome bioinformatics: identification and evolution of new bacterial microcompartment protein gene classes and core locus constraints.
Manuel Sommer, Fei Cai, Matthew R. Melnicki, Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link)
Here is the exciting article featuring this paper! How to build an artificial nano-factory to power our futures
April 7, 2017
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Congratulations to our undergraduate Cassie Dutcher!
Cassie received first place poster award for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology section of the MSU 19th annual University Undergraduate Research and Art Forum. Check out her interview about her experience with the department here! |
April 7, 2017
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Congratulations to our undergraduates, Ana Belza, Cassie Dutcher and Sean McGuire, for doing a great job presenting at MSU's 2017 UURAF!
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April 6, 2017
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Our paper about the different homologs of OCP is out!
Structure and functions of Orange Carotenoid Protein homologs in cyanobacteria Han Bao, Matthew R Melnicki, Cheryl A Kerfeld (link) |
March 30, 2017
Our research (paper below) featured on the MSU-PRL website: Unpacking a new bacterial mini-factory
January 16, 2017
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Congratulations to Aiko to be accepted into grad school at MSU!
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Our new paper about the GRE core enzymes is out:
In Vitro Characterization and Concerted Function of Three Core Enzymes of a Glycyl Radical Enzyme - Associated Bacterial Microcompartment Jan Zarzycki, Markus Sutter, Niña Socorro Cortina, Tobias J. Erb & Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
January 9, 2017
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Bryan Ferlez joined Kerfeld Lab East as a postdoctoral researcher!
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December 4, 2016
Our newest review on OCP (Orange Carotenoid Protein) is out in Nature Plants!
Diana Kirilovsky & Cheryl A. Kerfeld
Cyanobacterial photoprotection by the orange carotenoid protein
(link) (link to free pdf)
Our newest review on OCP (Orange Carotenoid Protein) is out in Nature Plants!
Diana Kirilovsky & Cheryl A. Kerfeld
Cyanobacterial photoprotection by the orange carotenoid protein
(link) (link to free pdf)
November 29, 2016
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Congratulations to our undergraduate Sean McGuire! Sean is a recipient of the 2016 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the MSU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Check out his interview at PRL department here! Sean with his mentor, Dr. Aussignargues. |
October 11, 2016
Our News and Views on modularity/synthetic biology is out in Nature Biotechnology: Rewiring Escherichia coli for carbon-dioxide fixation.
Our News and Views on modularity/synthetic biology is out in Nature Biotechnology: Rewiring Escherichia coli for carbon-dioxide fixation.
October 3, 2016
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Tina Dominguez Martin joined Kerfeld Lab East as a postdoctoral researcher!
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September 12, 2016
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Nancy Sloan joined the Kerfeld Lab West as a Research Associate!
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September 15, 2016
Our research (paper below) featured on the MSU-PRL website and also linked to on the US-DOE home page science.energy.gov
Our research (paper below) featured on the MSU-PRL website and also linked to on the US-DOE home page science.energy.gov
July 5, 2016
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Our new paper with structures and phylogenetics of carotenoid binding proteins is out!
Structure, Diversity, and Evolution of a New Family of Soluble Carotenoid Binding Proteins in Cyanobacteria Matthew R. Melnicki, Ryan L. Leverenz, Markus Sutter, Rocío López-Igual, Adjélé Wilson, Emily G. Pawlowski, François Perreau, Diana Kirilovsky, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) Take a look at the news-brief from MSU about the article here! |
June 28, 2016
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New paper out combining electron microscopy and genome analysis:
Cyanobacterial ultrastructure in light of genomic sequence data C. R. Gonzalez-Esquer, J. Smarda, R. Rippka, S. D. Axen, G. Guglielmi, M. Gugger, C. A. Kerfeld (link) |
May 22, 2016
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Aiko won a poster prize at the 12th Workshop on Cyanobacteria at ASU in Tempe AZ!
Check out the MSU award recipients interview article here! |
May 17, 2016
May 5, 2016
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Congratulations to our undergraduates Ana Belza and Tyler Shubitowski! Ana has been recognized by the Student Employee of the Year 2016 Program through the MSU Student Affairs and Services Department. Tyler is a recipient of the 2016 Physiology Undergraduate Research Award through the MSU Department of Physiology. Left Photo: Ana with her mentor, Dr. Gaudana. Right Photo: Tyler with his mentor, Dr. Gonzalez. (Photo courtesy of Communications and Brand Strategy.) |
April 28, 2016
A new paper about carbon-concentrating mechanism, photorespiration, and light perception in Fremyella diplosiphon
Interrelated modules in cyanobacterial photosynthesis: the carbon-concentrating mechanism, photorespiration, and light perception
Beronda L. Montgomery, Sigal Lechno-Yossef and Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link) (free full text available)
Interrelated modules in cyanobacterial photosynthesis: the carbon-concentrating mechanism, photorespiration, and light perception
Beronda L. Montgomery, Sigal Lechno-Yossef and Cheryl A. Kerfeld
(link) (free full text available)
April 12, 2016
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Our review about the current knowledge of cyanobacterial carboxsyomes is out!
Assembly, function and evolution of cyanobacterial carboxysomes Cheryl A. Kerfeld and Matthew R. Melnicki (link) |
March 21, 2016
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Our new paper about BMCs as metabolic modules is out!
Bacterial Microcompartments as Metabolic Modules for Plant Synthetic Biology C. Raul Gonzalez-Esquer, Sarah E. Newnham and Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
March 10, 2016
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Han Bao joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher!
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March 9, 2016
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Our paper on the PduL structure / cofactor recycling in BMCs is out in PLOS Biology!
The Structural Basis of Coenzyme A Recycling in a Bacterial Organelle Onur Erbilgin , Markus Sutter , Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
February 23-25, 2016
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East meets West at the Kerfeld lab retreat in Monterey CA
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February 4, 2016
Our research featured in the Berkeley Lab News:
Scientists Take Key Step Toward Custom-made Nanoscale Chemical Factories
Our research featured in the Berkeley Lab News:
Scientists Take Key Step Toward Custom-made Nanoscale Chemical Factories
January 24, 2016
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A new paper about RuBisCO from our group is out!
Biochemical characterization of predicted Precambrian RuBisCO Shih PM, Occhialini A, Cameron JC, Andralojc PJ, Parry MA, Kerfeld CA (link) OPEN ACCESS |
January 21, 2016
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Our new paper about making synthetic carboxysome shells is out!
Production and Characterization of Synthetic Carboxysome Shells with 2 Incorporated Luminal Proteins Fei Cai, Susan L. Bernstein, Steven C. Wilson and Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
December 24, 2015
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New paper out just before Christmas!
Structure and Function of a Bacterial Microcompartment Shell Protein Engineered to Bind a [4Fe-4S] Cluster Aussignargues C, Pandelia ME, Sutter M, Plegaria JS, Zarzycki J, Turmo A, Huang J, Ducat DC, Hegg EL, Gibney BR, Kerfeld CA (link) |
December 22, 2015
Our research is featured in the Berkeley Lab news: Nature’s Microscopic Masonry: The First Steps in How Thin Protein Sheets Form Polyhedral Shells
Our research is featured in the Berkeley Lab news: Nature’s Microscopic Masonry: The First Steps in How Thin Protein Sheets Form Polyhedral Shells
December 14, 2015
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The invited essay on our work was published!
Plug-and-play for improving primary productivity Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
December 1, 2015
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Our new paper using high-speed AFM on microcompartment protein layers is out!
Visualization of Bacterial Microcompartment Facet Assembly Using High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy Markus Sutter, Matthew Faulkner, Clément Aussignargues, Bradley Paasch, Steve Barrett, Cheryl Kerfeld, Luning Liu (link) |
November 6, 2015
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Our new paper about the AAA+ ATPase CbbQ in H. neapolitanus carboxysomes is out!
Structural Characterization of a Newly Identified Component of α-Carboxysomes: The AAA+ Domain Protein CsoCbbQ Markus Sutter, Evan W. Roberts, Raul C. Gonzalez, Cassandra Bates, Salma Dawoud, Kimberly Landry, Gordon C. Cannon, Sabine Heinhorst & Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
October 9, 2015
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We have a new paper about nanotubes from Mycobacterial shell proteins!
Purification and Characterization of Protein Nanotubes Assembled from a Single Bacterial Microcompartment Shell Subunit Christopher R. Noël, Fei Cai and Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
October 6, 2015
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Our new bioinformatics paper on GRE BMCs is out!
Bioinformatic Characterization of Glycyl Radical Enzyme-Associated Bacterial Microcompartments Jan Zarzycki, Onur Erbilgin, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) |
September 21, 2015
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New insights on OCP photoactivation in our recent PNAS paper!
Local and global structural drivers for the photoactivation of the orange carotenoid protein Sayan Gupta, Miklos Guttman, Ryan L. Leverenz , Kulyash Zhumadilova , Emily G. Pawlowski, Christopher J. Petzold , Kelly K. Lee , Corie Y. Ralston and Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) |
September 4, 2015
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Our new paper on carboxysome engineering is out!
Streamlined Construction of the Cyanobacterial CO2-Fixing Organelle via Protein Domain Fusions for Use in Plant Synthetic Biology C. Raul Gonzalez-Esquer, Tyler B. Shubitowski, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) |
August 3, 2015
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Cecilia Blikstad joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher!
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July 1, 2015
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Rodney Burton joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher!
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June 26, 2015
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We have a new paper published in Science!
A 12 Å carotenoid translocation in a photoswitch associated with cyanobacterial photoprotection Ryan L. Leverenz, Markus Sutter, Adjélé Wilson, Sayan Gupta, Adrien Thurotte, Céline Bourcier de Carbon, Christopher J. Petzold, Corie Ralston, François Perreau, Diana Kirilovsky, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) (links to full text & PDF reprints are available on our "Publications" page) Here is a news-brief from LBNL about the article: (link) |
June 23, 2015
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Our new paper about encapsulation peptides in BMCs is online!
Bacterial Microcompartment Assembly: The Key Role of Encapsulation Peptides Clément Aussignargues, Bradley C. Paasch, Raul Gonzalez-Esquer, Onur Erbilgin & Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) |
June 15, 2015
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Aparajita Banerjee and Jeff Plegaria joined the lab as postdoctoral researchers!
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May 16, 2015
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Onur is now Dr. Onur! Congratulations to Onur Erbilgin for earning his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley. |
May 1, 2015
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Andrew Hagen and Manuel Sommer joined the lab as postdoctoral researchers!
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April 17, 2015
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Fei Cai and Markus Sutter were featured in a "Meet the authors" special!
The feature was published in ACS Synthetic Biology, accompanying our paper on Microcompartment Shell Engineering: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00056 |
March 28, 2015
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Our new paper about CsoS2 is online! Advances in Understanding Carboxysome Assembly in Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus Implicate CsoS2 as a Critical Component Fei Cai, Zhicheng Dou, Susan L. Bernstein, Ryan Leverenz, Eric B. Williams, Sabine Heinhorst, Jessup Shively, Gordon C. Cannon and Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link to article) |
February 24-26, 2015
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East meets West at the Kerfeld lab retreat in Monterey, CA. |
January 21, 2015
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Sarah Newnham and Matt Melnicki are joining the lab as postdoctoral researchers!
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December 23, 2014
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Our new review on Bacterial Microcompartments just got published! Bacterial microcompartments and the modular construction of microbial metabolism Cheryl A. Kerfeld and Onur Erbilgin (link) |
November 19, 2014
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A new paper from our lab just came out! Bioinformatic analysis of the distribution of inorganic carbon transporters and prospective targets for bioengineering to increase Ci uptake by cyanobacteria Sandeep B. Gaudana, Jan Zarzycki, Vamsi K. Moparthi, Cheryl A. Kerfeld (link) |
October 23, 2014
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Our new paper describing a phylogenetic and functional taxonomy of bacterial microcompartments is out! A Taxonomy of Bacterial Microcompartment Loci Constructed by a Novel Scoring Method Seth D. Axen, Onur Erbilgin, Cheryl A. Kerfeld PLoS Computational Biology (2014) (link) |
September 2, 2014
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Aiko Turmo joined the lab as a Research Associate!
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August 19, 2014
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Our new paper on engineering bacterial microcompartment shells is out! Engineering Bacterial Microcompartment Shells: Chimeric Shell Proteins and Chimeric Carboxysome Shells Fei Cai, Markus Sutter, Susan L. Bernstein, James N. Kinney, Cheryl A. Kerfeld ACS Synthetic Biology (2014) (link) |
May 28, 2014
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Tarryn Miller is joining the Kerfeld Lab as a Graduate Student!
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May 5, 2014
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Lassila et al is on the cover of JMB! Assembly of Robust Bacterial Microcompartment Shells Using Building Blocks from an Organelle of Unknown Function JMB Volume 426, Issue 11, Pages 2159-2268 (29 May 2014) (link) |
April 11, 2014
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Brad Paasch joined the Kerfeld Lab as a Graduate Student!
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