Jane Hill originally hails from
rural Australia, although she has spent several years in central New York
State. Jane has worked a few years as a college chemistry instructor and
logged several years as an environmental consultant. Jane is the recipient of a National
Science Foundation graduate fellowship and is pursuing her interest in
environmental engineering biotechnology with Menachem Elimelech.
She also enjoys traveling, hiking, biking, tennis, gardening, poetry, and
creating music. Organic P Cycling - The search for phytate-degrading organisms - Organic P phosphorus-related movement - Links between agriculture and eutrophication Little is known about how organophosphorus compounds like inositol phosphates are cycled in the environment and yet they are implicated in the eutrophication of water bodies around the world, especially those that are adjacent to high density animal production sites. Experiments are being undertaken to examine bacterial propensity to utilize inositol phosphates using traditional culture-based and molecular techniques. Additionally, P31NMR and other analytical tools provide a solid geochemical context to the cycling and transport of these eutrophication agents, serving – in their own right – to provide additional parameters influencing the flow of phosphorus in the environment. Ultimately, the goal is to place the cycling of organo-phosphorus compounds into the greater context of phosphorus cycling in the biosphere. The same enzymes responsible for the degradation of these compounds (namely phytases) could be used to prevent the problems in the first place by being used as a feed additive to one-stomached animals like swine and poultry. Current enzymes being used in this $0.5 billion dollar annual market are only somewhat helpful, so new enzymes with more effective properties are being sought with this work. Organic phosphorus compounds are also important within cells, so understanding how chemotaxis sensory systems guide cell movement for uptake, is work that is also being conducted. Biotechnological Tools to Study Microbial Processes - Proteomics - Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Environmental engineers can learn a great deal from the genomic and micro evolution that has transformed other fields, like medicine. Current work focuses on improving protein separation as well as accessing the low-abundance proteins that dominate the proteome of E. coli. In addition, the design of chemotaxis devices and simply the study of bacteria behavior in microfluidic systems are also currently being undertaken. |
