Person


Nicolás Gurdo Ph.D. Student

Fervent biotechnologist seeking to exert control over synthetic biological systems and paving the way towards accurate, high-throughput microbial metabolomics.


Research

Microbial phenotypes are the last result of several layers of finely orchestrated biological steps. Active pathways and flux distribution through central carbon metabolism are critical components of a multidimensional physiological representation of every organism. To gain deeper insight into complex metabolic responses and ease engineering efforts, it is necessary to investigate intracellular metabolite concentrations and distribution of carbon fluxes. Intracellular reaction rates are then estimated by metabolic flux analysis, which provide a holistic perspective of metabolism. Against this background, the main objective of my Ph.D. thesis is to develop an automated platform for rapid prototyping the active fluxome of Pseudomonas species under different environmental conditions. The focus will be twofold, namely, (i) to uncover and study metabolic mechanisms that enable Pseudomonas aeruginosa to establish pathogenesis and (ii) to explore the metabolic determinants of robustness in the biotechnological platform Pseudomonas putida towards engineering synthetic metabolism.