Ongoing Research Projects
Past Projects @ Naresuan University
Pre-Subsoontorn Lab Era
Dynamics of Horizontal gene Transfer in Biofilm
@ Haseloff Lab, Cambridge, UK
DNA transfer via conjugation plays a major role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance among medically significant bacterial species. In this study, we developed a technique for visualising spatial distribution of conjugating bacterial population on a solid surface. Populations of donor, recipient and transconjugant cells can be distinguished using three different fluorescent reporters. We show that the fractal dimension of the interface between donor and recipient populations determines population-level conjugation efficiency. Additionally, competition for nutrients available at colony borders results in stochastic loss of cell diversity and increases variability of observed conjugation frequencies across different colonies
Reliable Functional Composition of a Recombinase Device Family
@ Endy Lab, Stanford, USA
Synthetic biology promises to replace ad hoc small-scale DNA engineering with formalized processes applied to realize much larger-scale changes in genotypes and more radical changes in phenotypes. We describes design principles and applications of a recombinase device family to provide examples for how to compose reliable synthetic gene systems. This work includes: a) computational feasibility studies of synthetic cycle counter, b) experimental proof-of-concepts for a recombinase device built from bacteriophage integrases and excisionases., c) generalisation of devices to three other integrase-excisionase pairs, and implement single-use two input logics, buffer gates and cascades, d) Implementation of autonomous recombinase switches driven by growth-phase dependent promoters.
Engineering In Vitro Transcriptional Circuits with Bistability
@ Winfree Lab, Caltech, USA
Toward gradually increasing the complexity of systematically engineered biological systems, programmable synthetic circuits operating in cell-free in vitro
environments offer a valuable testing ground for principles for the design, characterization, and analysis of complex biochemical systems. Here we illustrate this approach using
in vitro transcriptional circuits (“genelets”) while developing an activatable transcriptional switch motif and configuring it as a bistable autoregulatory circuit, using just four synthetic DNA strands and three essential enzymes, bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase, Escherichia coli ribonuclease H, and ribonuclease R. This simplicity encouraged us to characterize and model the system within a Bayesian inference framework.