John Bryant
- Research areas: Synthetic Biology and Lab Automation
Ph.D., Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2024 Expected
B.S., Biological and Environmental Sciences, Samford University, 2015
Experience
Graduate Research Assistant, BioFoundry Laboratory, Virginia Tech 2019-present Advisor: R Clay Wright, PhD
Davenport Leadership Fellow, Virginia Tech 2019-2020
Alabama Power Research Fellow, Samford University 2018
University Fellow, Samford University 2015-2019
Research Mentor: Elizabeth Dobbins, PhD
Alpha Epsilon Agricultural and Biological Engineering Honor Society Inductee, 2020
Virginia Tech Order of Omega Leadership Honor Society, Samford University 2019
Gamma Sigma Alpha Honor Society 2019
Dean’s List 2016-2019
Bioprocess Engineering Lab (TA), BSE 4534
Undergraduate Research Mentor, 3 researchers, 2021-present
Program Focus
Plant growth is controlled by dynamic gene expression regulated by environmental stimuli, hormones, cellular history, and other signals. Synthetic biology approaches, where genes are treated as interchangeable devices between organisms, have been used to parse the genetic mechanisms of plant growth in previous work. My objective is to automate the synthetic biology process through software development and then use this platform to characterize central hormone regulatory systems in plants. Ultimately, I aim to achieve rational control over plant growth to improve agricultural efficiency.
Reviewed Journals
- Bryant, JA, *Kellinger M, *Longmire C, Miller R, and Wright RC (2022). AssemblyTron: Flexible automation of DNA assembly with Opentrons OT-2 lab robots. Synthetic Biology, Accepted.
BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510219v1
(*undergraduate mentee author)
Oral Presentations
- Bryant JA, DNtegrAte: An Open-Source Python Package for Performing DNA Assemblies with the OT2 Liquid Handling Robot (Rapid Fire Talk). 2022 Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution, and Design (SEED), 2022 May 2nd; Washington, DC. ID: 641420.
- Bryant JA, Overview of plant synthetic biology. Virginia Tech BSE Graduate Student Recruitment Weekend, 2020 February 26; Blacksburg, VA.