Jonathan (Joff) Silberg Research Group

Rice University

How can synthetic biology tools reveal microbial behaviors in opaque soils and sediments? The Silberg Lab uses bottom-up synthetic biology to design cellular programs and new genetic outputs for environmental studies, including development of gas reporters to monitor gene expression in non-transparent materials. The group builds synthetic electron transport pathways and studies small protein electron carriers such as ferredoxins to map electron flux and enable bioelectronic devices. Researchers construct combinatorial protein libraries via transposon mutagenesis, apply selections and deep sequencing, and analyze protein tolerance to fragmentations and circular permutations. Work targets applications in bioelectronics, ecology, agriculture and information storage.