University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering Spring 2012 LIFEINSIDEthe CELL THE NEW TOOLS – of – BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING Dean’s Message Contents Over the past four years, the University of Houston Cullen Dean College of Engineering has been working strategically to- Joseph W. Tedesco ward its vision of becoming a Top 50 program nationwide. Associate Dean for Administration & Research Frank J. “Fritz” Claydon We have made significant progress in recruiting top faculty to join the college as part of our efforts to grow more than Associate Dean for Graduate Programs & Computing Facilities Suresh K. Khator 30 percent, positioning ourselves to become more nation- Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs ally competitive. David P. Shattuck Part of this growth includes hiring talented assistant profes- sors whose research shows promise in one of the four major Chairs Biomedical Engineering research focuses of our college: biomedical engineering, Metin Akay energy, nanomaterials and sustainability. On that note, I Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering am thrilled to announce that five of our assistant professors Ramanan Krishnamoorti have won National Science Foundation CAREER Awards Civil & Environmental Engineering this year! Many of these faculty have joined us in recent Abdeldjelil “DJ” Belarbi years and we are so proud of these accomplishments, as Electrical & Computer Engineering well as the achievements of our other junior faculty who Badrinath “Badri” Roysam continue to pave pathways of success of their own. Industrial Engineering Gino Lim At the Cullen College, we are extremely fortunate to have Mechanical Engineering such a vibrant, intelligent faculty to educate our students. Pradeep Sharma In fact, we lost one of these faculty members recently, and Parameters is published biannually by the University of Houston FE ATURES Cullen College of Engineering, Office of Communications. our entire college family was deeply saddened by the news. PARAMETERS - SPRING 2012 Dr. David Zimmerman, professor of mechanical engineer- Director ing, passed away in early April. He was an incredible leader, Lindsay Lewis mentoring many junior faculty and students throughout Editor ON THE COVER Toby Weber 6 Life Inside the Cell: his academic career. Dave served as associate chair of University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering THE NEW TOOLS OF BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING our Department of Mechanical Engineering for almost a Graphic Designer Spring 2012 decade and spent two years serving as interim chair during Andy Rich Biomolecular is one of the hottest areas of engineering research. By uncovering and an important transition in the department’s leadership. We Photography manipulating the exact workings of biologically-derived molecules and proteins, will forever be grateful for his contributions to the college, Thomas Campbell, Pin Lim, Nine Nguyen, researchers can make huge advances in fields ranging from drug development and TBS Photography, Thomas Shea, Joy Wilson to our community and to the world of structural dynamics delivery to commercial-scale production of targeted molecules. and controls. Contributing Writers/Editors Esmeralda Fisher John Lienhard the In this issue of Parameters, we highlight how Cullen Angie Shortt LIFEINSIDE CELL THE NEW TOOLS – of – 8 Understanding the Basics Peter Vekilov / Manolis Doxastakis College researchers are developing new tools and methods Laura Tolley BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING to better understand and leverage cellular activity on the Contact us: 10 Cell Mutation and Tagging Patrick Cirino / Navin Varadarajan molecular level. In the rapidly emerging area of biomo- Office of Communications lecular engineering, our researchers are working to gain a Cullen College of Engineering University of Houston Biomolecular Engineering 12 Medical Diagnostics Richard Willson fundamental understanding of disease development, deter- E301 Engineering Bldg. 2 UH Cullen College of Engi- Houston, Texas 77204-4009 mine new approaches for detecting and treating illness, and neering researchers are 14 Treating Diseases Jeffrey Rimer / Ramanan Krishnamoorti utilize biomolecular processes to create valuable products Phone 713.743.4220 developing new tools and for various industries. We hope you enjoy learning about Fax 713.743.8240 methods to solve some of E-mail [email protected] the greatest engineering 2 Lead News 18 Faculty News some of the remarkable biomolecular engineering research Website www.egr.uh.edu currently underway at the Cullen College. challenges on the molecular Those wishing to reprint articles or photographs should contact level. 4 News Briefs 20 Student News the editor. Use the credit line: Reprinted with permission of the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering. Clippings are 16 Research News 24 Last Word Warm regards, appreciated. The University of Houston is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution. Minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Joseph W. Tedesco, Ph.D., P.E. Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean and Professor University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 1 Faculty News EFFICIENT BACTERIA IDENTIFICATION 2012 CAREER BACTERIA MOTILITY THROUGH RAMAN MICROSPECTROSCOPY AWAWAARDSRDS AWARDS JACINTA CONRAD, assistant professor of chemical WEI-CHUAN SHIH, assistant professor of electrical and and biomolecular engineering, received a CAREER computer engineering, has won a CAREER Award to Jiming Bao Award to develop surfaces that limit bacterial motil- develop a new method to rapidly identify, count and ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING Five UH Cullen College of Engineering ity, or movement. profile bacteria with minimal sample preparation. At Doped Graphene: A Transformative the heart of the method is Raman microspectroscopy, Paradigm for Plasmonics and Two- assistant professors have each been How bacteria move, Conrad said, influences the for- a technique of “fingerprinting” molecules by shining Dimensional Nanophotonics mation of biofilms, colonies of bacteria that are pro- laser light on them. Exactly how a molecule causes the Grant Award: $400,000 awarded a prestigious CAREER Award tected by an extracellular matrix made of proteins. laser’s incident photons to scatter, as evidenced by a Biofilms are extremely difficult to remove and often change in color, can be used for identification purposes. from the National Science Foundation. extremely problematic for industries ranging from healthcare to petroleum to food processing. Traditional Raman microspectroscopy is very slow, With a combined value of up to examining only one small point at a time. Shih is Jacinta Conrad Conrad and her collaborators have published mul- developing a multiple-point Raman microspectros- CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING $2.15 million, the grants will help tiple articles revealing methods of bacteria motility. copy system that can image roughly 100 points at Role of Surface Properties in Motility of She plans to use this newfound knowledge to de- once. He will combine this advance with Surface- Bacteria to Control Biofilms these outstanding researchers launch sign surfaces that can inhibit biofilm formation and Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, or SERS, which Grant Award: $400,021 successful research careers and help change the shapes these biofilms take. Using poly- enhances the Raman scattering of molecules near mer thin films layered on a glass substrate, Conrad bacteria surfaces in contact with certain nanostruc- further propel the University of Houston will work to prevent hairlike bacteria appendages tures. This boost will allow Shih to quickly identify called pili from attaching to a surface by altering its possible bacteria among human cells and other envi- into Tier One status. chemistry, its elasticity and its topography. ronmental particles. Debora Rodrigues CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Toxicology of Graphene-Based Nanomaterials: A Molecular Biotechnology Approach Grant Award: $449,967 EXPLORING GRAPHENe’s ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT POLYMER SOLAR CELL OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF GRAPHENE EFFICIENCY Wei-Chuan Shih JIMING BAO, assistant professor of electrical and Though graphene is one of the most promising nano- Though polymer solar cells have several advantages ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING computer engineering, has won a CAREER Award materials in existence, its impact on the environment over standard silicon-based cells, they convert sun- Integrated Molecular and Computational to study the optical properties of graphene, sin- is unclear. DEBORA RODRIGUES, assistant professor light into electricity far less efficiently.G ILA STEIN, Sensing (IMACS) for Label-free Bacteriomics gle-atom thick sheets of carbon. of civil and environmental engineering, has won a assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular en- CAREER Award to study how nano-scale materials gineering, will work to improve their efficiency by Grant Award: $400,000 Simulations have shown that graphene has the that utilize these one-atom-thick sheets of carbon af- better controlling the interface between the polymer ability to act as an optical waveguide for surface fect the bacteria that are essential to the treatment of in a cell, which generates electrons when exposed to plasmon, essentially serving as a pathway along wastewater. sunlight, and the material that receives these elec- which these electromagnetic waves can travel. trons, often spherical carbon molecules known as Gila Stein By creating sheets of graphene and then etching In addition to studying the environmental