Dr. Adam Guss
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract: Developing microbial genetic tools to enable applications from plastics bioconversion to microbiome engineering
Non-model microbes play an important role in the environment and often could be leveraged for biotechnological applications, but they are usually genetically inaccessible due to a lack of genetic tools. We have implemented a host-agnostic approach to rapidly develop genetic toolboxes for diverse bacteria, including for organisms that can grow on inexpensive feedstocks such as breakdown products from plastics and lignocellulose and for organisms that are part of complex microbial communities. I will discuss how we can use these tools to expand the metabolic capabilities of organisms to consume breakdown products from lignocellulose and multiple modern plastics and engineer new functions into microbial communities. 

Bio: Dr. Adam Guss is a Senior R&D Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He earned his PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign using genetics to study carbon and electron flux in the methanogenic archaea. After postdoctoral research positions studying the microbial diversity present in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients and developing genetic tools for cellulose-degrading thermophilic bacteria, he joined ORNL as a staff scientist. At ORNL, his group focuses on developing genetic tools in diverse, non-model microorganisms and using those tools in applications ranging from bioconversion of sustainable feedstocks into renewable fuels and chemicals to engineer microbial communities for various applications