Timothy J. Donohue

Our laboratory analyzes networks that microbes use to grow or produce bioproducts from renewable resources. To dissect this fundamentally important problem, we dissect genomic, metabolic and regulatory pathways of bacteria that convert renewable resources, such as non-edible lignocellulosic plant biomass, into products that are currently derived from fossil fuels. By mining genome sequence databases, coupling genomic (microarrays & RNAseq, proteomics, metabolomics), computational, molecular and synthetic biology techniques, we define how carbon and energy in nutrients is partitioned into cell growth or formation of bioproducts. The metabolic pathways, signal transduction networks, transcription factors, and signals that control these processes are identified, modelled or re-engineered using mutants, in vitro systems and in silico models. Our long range goals are to understand energy-conserving pathways of societal importance, and to combine computational and experimental systems to design microbial machines with increased capacity to utilize renewable resources, or enable a green production of fuels and chemicals.