Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Anderson Lee Rose Hills

Investigating Applicable Biotechnologies of Cyanobacteria with a Comprehensive Pangenome

This summer, I will be creating and analyzing a pangenome of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria have long been of interest in the synthetic biology world because of certain traits, such as hydrogen and biopharmaceutical production. The pangenome will compare all of the genes of the sequenced cyanobacterial strains, not only allowing the construction of a phylogenomic tree but also illuminating which genes correspond to specific physiologies. Hopefully, this mapping will allow for optimization of biological processes through deletion of unnecessary steps, insight into which genes make some cyanobacteria filamentous, and enlightenment of the various functions of unknown genes.

Message To Sponsor

I would like to thank the Rose Hills Foundation for generously supporting my work this summer. During a very hard time, they made it possible for me to continue to work on my passion, and I now have more opportunities for the future because of this experience.