She/Her
I work with electrogenetics, which deals with converting information from electronics to electrical signals to express a gene of interest in an engineered cell. Currently, electrogenetics uses global transcriptional regulators to activate a gene of interest in engineered microbes. Problematically, these regulators upregulate a significant amount of genes across the genome in addition to the gene of interest. Thus, current electrogenetics approaches wastes cellular energy on undesired responses. My project focuses on overcoming current limitations in electrogenetics by exploiting the restricted transcriptional regulation of DHNA-dependent EET in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum to build an electrogenetic system using local transcriptional regulation.
Favorite Scientist: Rosalind Franklin
Education: Ph.D. student, Biochemistry & Cell Biology Program
B.S. Biochemistry, University of New Mexico, 2019
cd54 at rice dot eduC. Ajo-Franklin Group Publications
“Selective bioelectronic sensing of pharmacologically relevant quinones using extracellular electron transfer in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum,” S. Li, C. De Groote Tavares, J. G. Tolar, C. M. Ajo-Franklin, Biosensors and Bioelectronics (2023)