blui at stanford.edu

Attended Super Bowl XLI.

Education

MS in Bioengineering, Stanford University, 2007
BS in Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 2005

Research

Directed evolution is a widely used and effective approach to engineer proteins for desired properties. Various techniques, such as yeast surface display, have been developed to evolve proteins. In a collaboration with the Swartz lab in the Chemical Engineering department, Bertrand is working on developing and evaluating cell-free protein synthesis as an evolution platform. Two protein evolution projects will be used to test its effectiveness and to compare it to yeast surface display.

The first project is to engineer peptide tags that bind a small molecule fluorophore and simultaneously activate its fluorescence. This peptide and small fluorophore system will form a novel strategy for monitoring protein expression and localization. The second project is to evolve epidermal growth factor for enhanced wound healing and cell proliferation. Epidermal growth factor plays a role in the healing process and has great therapeutic potential for wound repair and regenerative medicine.