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SUMMARY:Illuminating metal ions in the gut microbiota
LOCATION:Chemistry A101
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20230406T160000
UID:2026-04-23-20-59-58@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260423T205958
Description:About the Seminar\n\nEssential metal ions like zinc\, copper\, 
 and iron have a broad range of signaling\, stabilizing\, and catalytic fun
 ctions across all living systems. The gut microbiota typically acquires th
 ese metals through the host diet but must be able to adapt to dietary fluc
 tuations. Many studies link changes in available metal nutrients to altera
 tions in bacterial colonization\, pathogen resistance\, and gut microbiota
  community composition but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Our r
 esearch program revolves around elucidating fundamental molecular mechanis
 ms by which metals affect the microbiota. This talk will focus on our effo
 rts to develop metal ion biosensors for illuminating metals within complex
  bacterial communities. We are investigating a series of cofactor-based fl
 uorescent proteins that emit wavelengths ranging from green to the near-in
 frared and which\, unlike green fluorescent proteins and their variants\, 
 do not rely on oxygen. I will cover how our group is re-engineering these 
 proteins to develop novel sensors for zinc and copper. Application of thes
 e sensors to live bacteria and opportunities for their use in gut microbio
 ta models will be discussed. I will also present our progress investigatin
 g how metal ions affect growth and cell interactions of the Lactobacillace
 ae family of bacteria\, which are crucial members of the gut microbiota.\n
 \nAbout the Speaker\n\nMelissa was born in East Haven\, Connecticut\, and 
 earned her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut. While the
 re\, she carried out undergraduate research with Prof. Isabelle Lagadic an
 d Prof. Christian Brückner. Melissa earned her Ph.D. in 2013 from the Uni
 versity of Michigan\, where she worked with Prof. Vincent Pecoraro on desi
 gning dual site metallopeptides for structural stabilization and hydrolyti
 c catalysis. As part of the NIH Chemistry Biology Interface Training Progr
 am\, she took a brief research sabbatical with Prof. Fraser Armstrong at O
 xford University where she carried out electrochemical studies on copper-b
 inding peptides. In 2013\, Melissa joined Prof. Stephen Lippard’s lab at
  MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow where she developed synthetic and hybri
 d synthetic-protein fluorescent zinc sensors. Since beginning her independ
 ent career at the University of Houston in 2017\, Melissa and her research
  team have focused on developing new biochemical tools for investigating t
 he mechanisms by which metal ions affect the gut microbiota. Her work has 
 been recognized with the NIH R35 MIRA and NSF CAREER awards. 4:00 pm
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