Roman Brunecky - Research Scientist
Roman Brunecky received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2007. His advisors were Tatiana Kutateladze and Michael Overduin. He worked on characterizing the interaction between a-synuclein and the C-terminus of the dopamine transporter.
At NREL, Dr. Brunecky's research has focused on the development of high-throughput robotic assays for testing the efficacy of biomass conversion enzymes. He has also developed novel robotic methods for both mass spectrometry and x-ray crystallography. Furthermore, he has used his experience in protein expression and purification to identify and characterize novel bioconversion enzymes in conjunction with industrial partners. He has vast experience in biophysical characterization of proteins and enzymes using classical biochemistry methods as well as structural biology methods such as circular dichroism, NMR methods, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Dr. Brunecky has also worked on several projects involving lignin and xylan migration using a variety of microscopic methods including confocal and scanning electron microscopy.
Dr. Brunecky is interested in using a variety of scientific tools and methods to address the problems of biomass conversion and recalcitrance in the context of biofuel or other bioproduct generation. To address these issues, he focuses on improving existing enzymes using rational design, or discovering better enzymes for biomass conversion, and understanding both the macroscopic and microscopic or chemical structures in biomass that lead to recalcitrance.
Selected Publications
- William S. Adney, Tina Jeoh, Yat-Chen Chou, John O. Baker, William Michener, Roman Brunecky, and Michael E. Himmel. "Probing the Role of N-linked Glycosylation on the Stability and Activity of Glycosyl Hydrolase Family 7 Cellobiohydrolases by Mutational Analysis." 2008. Biotechnology for Biofuels. Manuscript in preparation.
- Brunecky, R., Stephanie E. Porter, Todd B. Vinzant, Michael E. Himmel and David K. Johnson. "Redistribution of Xylan in Maize Cell Walls during Dilute Acid Pretreatment." 2008. Biotechnology for Biofuels. Manuscript in preparation.
- Larry E Taylor II, Ziyu Dai, Stpehen R. Decker, Roman Brunecky, William S. Adney, Shi-You Ding, Michael E. Himmel. "Heterologous Expression of Glycosyl Hydrolases in Planta: A New Departure for Biofuels." 2008. Trends in Biotechnology.
- Brunecky R., Tripet B.P., Hodges R.S., Miranda, M., Sorkin A., and Kutateladze T.G. "Structure of C-terminal domain of the Dopamine transporter and its regulation by a-synuclein." 2008. Biochemistry. Manuscript in preparation.
- Brunecky R., Lee S., Rzepecki P.W., Overduin M., Prestwich G.D., Kutateladze A.G., and Kutateladze T.G. "Investigation of the Binding Geometry of a Peripheral Membrane Protein." Biochemistry. 2005.
Other Team Members
Roman Brunecky |
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