Alessandra Eustaquio
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Synthetic biology reprograms cells by editing their DNA. One goal is getting microbes to make useful natural products in high amounts.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Genetics
- Topics
synthetic biology
epigenetics
DNA methylation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Identify how epigenetic DNA methylation drives 580-fold overproduction of the peptide capistruin in an industrial Burkholderia strain, by perturbing enzymes of its restriction-modification system.
- Generate and integrate methylome (DNA methylation map) and transcriptome (gene activity) datasets to link methylation patterns with plasmid copy number and gene transcription.
- Test how epigenetic factors control natural-product yields in Gram-negative and Gram-positive model bacteria, toward a programmable epigenetic system for synthetic biology.
More about the research
A common bottleneck is low yield when genes are moved into a new host organism, called heterologous expression. Epigenetics may help explain why yields vary. Here, epigenetics means chemical tags, mainly methyl groups added to DNA, that change how genes behave without changing the DNA sequence. In bacteria, DNA methylation is part of restriction-modification systems, defense systems that mark the cell's own DNA so it can cut foreign DNA. Methylation also helps control DNA copying and gene activity.
Why it matters
Low and unpredictable yields limit the use of bacteria to discover and produce natural products. Understanding how DNA methylation drives a 580-fold jump in peptide production could help explain random variation in yields. It could also lead to improved synthetic biology tools for boosting production across diverse bacteria, supporting natural product discovery and a sustainable bioeconomy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
William Wuest
Emory University, GA·Chemistry
Synthesize inhibitors inspired by the natural product peniciaculin, which likely mimic the cofactor ubiquinone, and test them against blight-causing plant pathogens using organic synthesis and microbiology.
Jason Papin
University of Virginia, VA·Biomedical Engineering
Build computational metabolic network models of antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus in body-like environments, to predict genes and pathways that support the evolution of resistance.
Kurt Piepenbrink
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Biophysics
Identify which subunits of bacterial surface fibers act as extracellular DNA receptors in Gram-positive Clostridioides and Gram-negative Acinetobacter species.
The school
University of Illinois Chicago: 42 labs on PI Pages, $532M a year on research, 359 research doctorates a year.
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