Robert Moseley, graduate student at the University of Tennessee (UT), and Bredesen Center Student in Bioenergy and Biofuels working with Xiaohan Yang in the Plant Systems Biology Group in the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has received the UT award for Excellence in Graduate Research.
He was recently awarded a scholarship to attend Q-Bio, a computational synthetic biology workshop at Colorado State University, in June of 2017.
His research includes developing a crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plant genetic and genomics resource named CAMbase that allows easy access and visualization of data through a web browser and inferring gene regulatory relationships in the CAM plant, Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, by utilizing a time delay gene regulatory inference algorithm. He is also investigating the potential of making Escherichia coli a test bed for plant functional genomics through integration of metabolic modeling, biochemistry and synthetic biology.
In the future, Robert would like to continue working on interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects which will lead to a position in academia/industry after graduation.
Robert is also the Co-Founder and President of a startup company named SimPath which is a synthetic biology company which will enable quicker, cost-effective research in biomanufacturing and bioengineering. Operations are scheduled to start this summer with several beta customers already on board from the University of Tennessee.
The Bredesen Center is committed to establishing collaborative graduate research between The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, locations are set up at both campuses to fulfill the educational and research requirements of students, faculty, and staff.