Aindrila Mukhopadhyay

Last updated
Aindrila Mukhopadhyay
Born
India
Alma mater University of Chicago
Indian Institute of Technology
Isabella Thoburn College
Scientific career
Institutions Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Emory University
Thesis Initiating lateral gene transfer : analysis of the VirA/VirG two component system in vivo  (2002)

Aindrila Mukhopadhyay is an American scientist who is the Division Deputy of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research involves microbial engineering for the production of biofuels. She was nominated a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.

Contents

Early life and education

Mukhopadhyay is from West Bengal, India. [1] Her father is a surgeon and a painter. [1] She was a bachelor's student in chemistry and zoology at the Isabella Thoburn College. For her postdoctoral research, she studied chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology. [2] She moved to the University of Chicago in 1996, where she worked toward a doctorate in organic chemistry. [2] She held a joint position at Emory University. After earning her doctorate, Mukhopadhyay joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher.[ citation needed ]

Research and career

Mukhopadhyay leads biological systems and engineering at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she engineers microbes to make sustainable and low-cost chemicals. [3] [4] She studies biological processes (e.g. stress response, signaling and membrane transport) in microbial systems. [5] Mukhopadhyay makes use of a variety of biochemical approaches to understand environmentally important model (sulphate and cyanobacteria) and non-model organisms ( Pseudomonas stutzeri , Desulfovibrio vulgaris and Agrobacterium tumefaciens ). She is part of the United States Department of Energy Enigma project. [6] [7]

Mukhopadhyay combines protein and host engineering to improve the production fuels, using microbes such as Escherichia coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum. In 2016, Mukhopadhyay engineered a bacterial strain that can permit the one-pot production of biofuels from a slurry. [8] The strain had an amino acid mutation on the rcd gene, and was particularly tolerant to ionic liquids. [9]

Alongside her work on biofuels, Mukhopadhyay has investigated environmentally-friendly pigments. [10] She investigated how well Rhodosporidium toruloides can express nonribosomal peptide synthetases. She showed that Rhodosporidium toruloides (a fungus) bioengineered to convert amino acid molecules into indigoidine, a blue pigment that can be used in the textile industry. [10] She showed that for every liter of bioreactor culture it was possible to generate 86 grams of indigoidine, which was the highest yield ever reported. [10]

Muchpadhyay is vice president of the Biofuels and Bioproducts Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), where she oversees host engineering. [11]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

Personal life

Mukhopadhyay is an artist. [1]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Aindrila's Mission: JBEI Scientist Sketches Her SF Neighborhood". today.lbl.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  2. 1 2 "Aindrila Mukhopadhyay". jbei.org. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  3. ↑ "A New Way to Make Chemicals Not Found in Nature – Berkeley Lab". News Center. 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  4. ↑ Chubukov, Victor; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Petzold, Christopher J.; Keasling, Jay D.; Martín, Héctor García (2016-04-07). "Synthetic and systems biology for microbial production of commodity chemicals". npj Systems Biology and Applications. 2 (1): 16009. doi:10.1038/npjsba.2016.9. ISSN   2056-7189. PMC   5516863 . PMID   28725470.
  5. ↑ akovner (2019-03-07). "Using Tiny Organisms to Unlock Big Environmental Mysteries". News Center. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  6. ↑ "Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila". ENIGMA. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  7. ↑ "ENIGMA". ENIGMA. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  8. ↑ scyang (2016-05-10). "Berkeley Lab Scientists Brew Jet Fuel in One-Pot Recipe – Berkeley Lab". News Center. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  9. ↑ Frederix, Marijke; Mingardon, Florence; Hu, Matthew; Sun, Ning; Pray, Todd; Singh, Seema; Simmons, Blake A.; Keasling, Jay D.; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila (2016-07-21). "Development of an E. coli strain for one-pot biofuel production from ionic liquid pretreated cellulose and switchgrass". Green Chemistry. 18 (15): 4189–4197. doi: 10.1039/C6GC00642F . ISSN   1463-9270.
  10. 1 2 3 akovner (2019-06-21). "Blue Pigment from Engineered Fungi Could Help Turn the Textile Industry Green". News Center. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  11. ↑ "Leadership". jbei.org. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  12. ↑ "Mid-Career Award Winners". The Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  13. ↑ sharmon (2023-01-31). "Mukhopadhyay Named AAAS Fellow". Biosciences Area. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
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