- Jay Keasling
Dr. Jay D. Keasling is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at the
University of California, Berkeley . He is also the Director of the Physical Biosciences Division of theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , and is the Founding Director of the Synthetic Biology Department at UC Berkeley. He is considered one of the foremost authorities insynthetic biology , especially in the field ofmetabolic engineering . Other, related research interests includeSystems Biology andEnvironmental Biotechnology .Keasling's current research involves the metabolic engineering of the "
Escherichia coli " bacterium, to produce the anti-malarial drugartemisinin . Although it is an effective, proven treatment formalaria , current methods of producingartemisinin (found naturally in the plant "Artemisia annua ") are considered too expensive to cost-effectively eliminate malaria from developing countries. By producing the drug from a microbe, rather than harvesting it from a plantation, the Keasling Lab intends to lower the cost of artemisinin production from $2.40 per dose to $0.25 per dose. [Science@Berkeley May 30, 2006 Article: An Age-Old Microbe May Hold the Key to Curing an Age-Old Affliction URL: http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2006/May/02-antimalarial.html]In
2004 , theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a shared $42.5 million grant to the Keasling Lab,Amyris Biotechnologies , andthe Institute for OneWorld Health to develop and distribute the low-cost malaria treatment. [Gates foundation to promote synthetic biology URL: http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2006/May/02-antimalarial.html] In 2006 Discover magazine awarded its first ever Scientist of the Year Award to Jay Keasling. [Discover 2006 Scientist of the Year: Jay Keasling. URL: http://discovermagazine.com/2006/dec/cover]Jay Keasling received his Bachelor's Degree at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln . He received his Ph.D from theUniversity of Michigan in 1991. He is originally fromHarvard, Nebraska .References
External links
* [http://cheme.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/keasling/keasling.html Jay D. Keasling Faculty Page at UC Berkeley]
* [http://keaslinglab.lbl.gov/wiki/index.php/Main_Page The Keasling Lab Web Site]
* News articles [http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2006/May/02-antimalarial.html] [http://news.com.com/Gates+foundation+to+promote+synthetic+biology/2100-1008_3-5489245.html] [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/dbnl-abi022306.php] [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/11/15_discovery.shtml]
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