Faculty

Colin Gates, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

cgates4AT luc.edu

Research:

Our research focuses on the regulation of photosynthesis across the tree of life, with several key projects ongoing.  1) We are investigating the decision-making process for trophic modes in organisms which are capable of living autotrophically, heterotrophically, or mixotrophically, with a particular focus on the red algae Galdieria sulphuraria and Cyanidioschyzon merolae.  These algae are native to hot springs and normally exist in a symbiotic partnership but are capable of surviving a broad range of conditions and living independently on a wide range of food sources and substrates; we are investigating transcriptomic, metabolomic, and methylomic responses along with collaborators at Rutgers University and the Joint Genome Institute.  2) While Photosystem II is one of the most tightly conserved proteins in nature, its behavior varies dramatically across organisms.  With the advent of new structures of Photosystem II across a broader range of organisms, we can begin to correlate structural differences to functional observations; we are correlating structural proteomics to oximetry, fluorometry, and spectroscopy in the wet lab.  3) Light stress response is a heterogeneous process across the scale of a cell or an organism, as the proteins within are differentially affected.  Using long-term brightfield and fluorescence imaging and correlated electron microscopy, we are able to observe the light stress response in both the photosystems and the associated antenna proteins; image analysis is employed to make quantitative sense out of hours-long movies of cell behavior.

Staff

Maura Joyce