Dr. Nick Coleman
The Coleman Lab aims to discover and create microbes that perform useful tasks for humans, from biosynthesis to biodegradation and beyond. Our main project currently is the design and construction of better plasmids for cloning and expression of genes in bacteria.
research at coleman-lab.org
Can we treat living systems like ‘Lego’ ? Or is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?
We are increasingly taking a SynBio approach to research questions (i.e. modularity, abstraction, modelling, standardisation). We have applied SynBio methods to bioremediation, biocatalysis, biosensors, medical biotech, and to design of new cloning vectors, and contributed DNAs to AddGene and the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
How can industrial chemical reactions be replaced with biochemical reactions?
We are especially interested in the reactions of oxygenases – these add oxygen to hydrocarbons, yielding alcohols and epoxides. Some oxygenases are highly selective, e.g. the ethene monooxygenase from Mycobacterium spp. can convert alkenes into near-pure single enantiomers of epoxides, which are valuable for pharmaceutical synthesis.
How can we minimise MGE negative effects (e.g. antibiotic resistance) and enhance positive effects (e.g. pollutant degradation)?
MGEs are powerful tools both for bacteria and for biotechnologists. We are interested in discovering and characterising new MGEs, developing methods for detecting their activities in the environment, and using them to develop new genetic tools. MGEs of special interest to our lab include catabolic plasmids and integrons.
