Jim Spain, PhD, scientific consultant, is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Spain received his PhD in microbiology from The University of Texas and then studied the biodegradation of pesticides in the marine environment for five years as a post doctoral fellow and research scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Marine Environmental Research Laboratory. Prior to joining Georgia Tech Dr. Spain directed the Environmental Biotechnology research program at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Panama City, Florida where he studied the biodegradation of synthetic organic compounds in the environment. Dr. Spain works at the interface between basic microbiology research and practical applications to solve environmental problems. His research interests in environmental biotechnology include : discovery and construction of bacteria for degradation of organic pollutants ; evolution and adaptation of microbial communities ; distribution, persistence, and biodegradation of chemical pollutants in soil and water ; photobiological hydrogen production by cyanobacteria ; and discovery of biocatalysts for green chemistry synthesis of novel materials. Dr. Spain is a former editor for Applied and Environmental Microbiology and has published widely on the biodegradation and biosynthesis of organic compounds. He consults regularly with bioremediation companies and has discovered a number of novel microorganisms able to biodegrade pollutants previously thought to be recalcitrant.

Valérie de Crécy, PhD, scientific consultant, was trained as a bacterial geneticist at the Pasteur Institute (Paris) and the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda). She has worked in industrial settings (at Aventis and a consultant for a French Biotech company) and in academic settings at The Scripps Research Institute and recently at the Dpt of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida. Her work has covered many aspects of microbial metabolism (primary, secondary and regulation) and lead to around forty publications. In recent years she has focused on combining comparative genomics with experimental validation to identify novel genes and on using experimental evolution protocols to adapt bacteria to new metabolic constraints.

Nemat O. Keyhani, PhD, scientific consultant, is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University under Dr. Saul Roseman. Prior to joining the University of Florida, his post-doctoral work involved studies on microbial pathogenesis and biodegradation of chitin by marine bacteria. Since joining the University of Florida, his research has focused on molecular, genetic and physiological studies of the entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana and their ability to target diverse member of the Arthropoda. He has established the first extensive transcriptome analysis of B. bassiana, is a member of the M. anisopliae genome sequencing effort, and is the lead principal investigator and founder of the B. bassiana Genome Sequencing Consortium.

Thomas Lyons, PhD, Scientific Consultant, is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied the relationship between protein structure and function, with an emphasis on how changes in the structure/function relationship can led to disease states. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri, Columbia where he studied how microorganisms acquire essential micronutrients and how environmental changes alter global patterns of gene transcription. As a faculty member at the University of Florida, Dr. Lyons has specialized in studying a new and largely uncharacterized family of receptors that can be found in nearly all living organisms. Dr. Lyons’ research falls into two main categories. The first involves identifying the physiological role of these receptors in the model fungus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and to dissect the mechanism of signal transduction. In S. cerevisiae, these receptors regulate interspecies communication by functioning as receptors for proteins produced by plants. We have discovered that these receptors regulate fungal developmental programs by producing lipid second messengers. The second category involves the heterologous expression of human receptors in this family in S. cerevisiae. We have established that human receptors can be functionally reconstituted in the yeast system and have begun the pharmacological characterization of these poorly understood proteins. Dr. Lyons’ expertise spans the disciplines of protein biochemistry, nutrient acquisition, pharmacology, membrane and lipid metabolism, signal transduction cascades and gene transcription.