Abstract: A cell-free approach to synthetic biology enables direct control of and access to the biological machinery for rapid Build-Test-Learn engineering cycles. The exponentially growing field is already impacting biocatalysis and biotheraputics.  This presentation will highlight recent advances including (1) optimized site-specific biocatalysis immobilization with unnatural amino acids, (2) the engineering of shelf-stable “just-add-water” protein expression systems, (3) genetic recoding to expand the language of biology, and (4) site-specific protein-polymer bioconjugation for biocatalysis and biotheraputic applications.

Bio: Dr. Brad Bundy is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Brigham Young University.  His research is focused in cell-free synthetic biology with five specific thrusts: (1) Building Better Biocatalysts by developing technology for the rapid site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins for orientation-controlled covalent biocatalyst immobilization; (2) Rewriting the Genetic Code by developing technology to directly control and manipulate the tRNA content for the incorporation of multiple different unnatural amino acids simultaneously; (3) Vaccine Development by engineering and reengineering viruses and virus-like particles; (4) Cancer Biotheraputic Optimization for decreased costs and side-effects through improved pharmacokinetics; and (5) Streamlining Cell-free Synthetic Biology by developing more cost-effective, shelf-stable and transferable technologies to make cell-free technology more portable and robust for commercial use and more accessible to more scientists and researchers.  He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and BYU Young Scholar Award. Dr. Bundy is also committed to excellence in education and received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award in Chemical Engineering in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2016 as voted by the BYU chemical engineering students. Dr. Bundy has worked with BYU students to develop hands-on teaching adventures of heat/mass transfer and biochemical engineering which have been presented to 3,000+ K-12 students at BYU’s Engineering Week Fair.  Procedures and lessons plans for these engineering adventures can be found on his website at http://bundy.byu.edu

~BME Faculty Host: Tamara Kinzer-Ursem~

***Coffee and juice will be provided at West Lafayette***