Maria Lucia Ghirardi - Principal Scientist

phone: 303-384-6312
email: Maria.Ghirardi@nrel.gov
At NREL since 1995

Dr. Maria L. Ghirardi is a Principal Scientist at NREL and a Research Associate Professor the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. She received her Ph.D. degree in Comparative Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. Since then, she has been involved in both basic and applied research and has had extensive experience working with photosynthetic organisms. Her work at NREL involves photobiological H₂ production and covers metabolic, biochemical, and genetic aspects of algal metabolism.

Her team’s research accomplishments include (a) the development of the first sustained algal H₂-production system; (b) the identification of three enzymes required for the assembly of [FeFe]-hydrogenases; (c) the development of a bacterial system for production of large quantities of active algal hydrogenase enzyme, a major breakthrough in research; and (d) the use of molecular dynamics to create computational simulations of O₂ and H₂ gas diffusion through the hydrogenase enzyme, which led to the identification of two access pathways for O₂ to the catalytic site of the enzyme.

She has just started a new research project involving the development of a catalyst for H₂ production inspired by the biological hydrogenase enzyme, in collaboration with NREL’s Computational Science Center and with the Beckman Institute in Illinois. The catalyst is being designed to be coupled to a synthetic charge-separation device, in collaboration with Arizona State University.

Dr. Ghirardi has auhored more than 50 publications to date and has been featured as an invited speaker in many national and international conferences. Furthermore, her research team’s work was the subject of a video by Discovery channel that aired in 2003 and a video by PBS’s Nova aired in 2005. She was the recipient of NREL’s 2003 Outstanding Performance Staff Award, DOE’s 2003 Office of Sciences Outstanding Mentor Award, and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award in 2005. She holds two U.S. patents and has three new patent applications filed.

Selected Publications

1. Ghirardi, M.L., L. Zhang, J.W. Lee, T. Flynn, M. Seibert, E. Greenbaum, and A. Melis, "Microalgae: A Green Source of Renewable Hydrogen," Trends Biotechnol. 18, 506–511 (2000).
2. Kosourov, S.A.Tsygankov, M. Seibert. and M.L. Ghirardi, "Sustained Hydrogen Photoproduction by Chlamydomonas reinhardtii – Effects of Culture Parameters," Biotechnol. Bioeng. 78, 731–740 (2002).
3. Forestier, M.P. King, L. Zhang, M. Posewitz, S. Schwarzer, T. Happe, M.L. Ghirardi and M. Seibert, "Expression of Two [Fe]-Hydrogenases in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under Anaerobic Conditions," Eur J Biochem 270, 2750–2758 (2003).
4. Posewitz, M.C., P.W. King, S.L. Smolinski, L. Zhang, M. Seibert, and M.L. Ghirardi, "Discovery of Two Novel Radical SAM Proteins Required for the Assembly of an {Fe]-Hydrogenase," J. Biol. Chem. 279, 25711–25720 (2004).
5. Posewitz, M.C., S.L. Smolinski, S. Kanakagiri, A. Melis, M. Seibert and M.L. Ghirardi, "Hydrogen photoproduction is attenuated by disruption of an isoamylase gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii," Plant Cell 16, 2151–2163 (2004).
6. Ghirardi, M.L., P.W. King, M.C. Posewitz, P.C. Maness, A. Fedorov, K. Kim, J. Cohen, K. Schulten, and M. Seibert, "Approaches to developing biological H₂ -photoproducing organisms and processes,"  Biochem. Soc. Transact. 33, 70–72 (2005).

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