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| Karen McDonald | |
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email: kamcdonald@ucdavis.edu |
| Office: 3008 Bainer Hall | |
| Phone: (530)752-8314 | |
| Professor | ||
| Assoc. Dean, College of Engineering | ||
| B.S., 1979, Stanford University M.S., 1980, University of California, Berkeley Ph.D., 1985, University of Maryland, College Park | ||
Research  | ||
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| Plant Cell Culture Bioprocessing: Profs. Karen McDonald and Alan Jackman are investigating the production of pharmacologically important proteins from plant cell cultures. The research group is studying plant cell cultures of Trichosanthes kirilowii, a member of the Cucurbitaceae family found in China, Japan and Korea. This plant is of particular interest since it is a source of proteins known as ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) which have a variety of potentially useful pharmaceutical activities such as antiviral, antitumor, antidiabetic, abortifacient and immunomodulatory. One of these proteins, a 27 kDa protein isolated from the root tuber was found to selectively inhibit viral replication in human blood cells infected with HIV-1. This protein, known as trichosanthin has completed Phase II clinical trials as an AIDS drug. More recently, a 29kDa protein referred to as TAP-29 was isolated from root tubers of T. kirilowii and was also found to have anti-HIV activity although the cell toxicity was lower for this compound. The research group is investigating the kinetics of growth, quantification and characterization of intracellular and extracellular proteins from plant cell cultures and the influences of important bioreactor variables on RIP productivity using natural and genetically transformed T. kirilowii cell lines. The ultimate goal of the research is the determination of optimal bioreactor operating strategies to maximize production of functional proteins from these cultures and to characterize new potential therapeutic proteins. Photobioreactor Production of Sulfolipids: A wide variety of industrially important compounds are found naturally in photosynthetic organisms and are associated with photosynthetic membranes and/or organelles. We are studying the production of sulfolipids, important due to their anti-tumor and anti-HIV properties, in cyanobacterial cultures in photobioreactors. Production of sulfolipids in cyanobacteria is known to be closely tied to the formation of photosynthetic membranes, which in turn is stimulated under conditions of low light and low nitrogen levels. At high cell densities, however, growth rates of photosynthetic organisms are typically low and limited by light. Thus, optimization of photobioreactor systems for the production of photosynthetic membrane-associated compounds provides a significant engineering challenge to obtain high cell densities in short time periods with high product levels. Profs. McDonald and Jackman are collaborating with other faculty on campus to characterize, quantify, model and optimize the production and product recovery of sulfolipids from cynanobacterial cultures. The overall goals of this research program are to combine biological and bioprocessing approaches to maximize the production of high value, photosynthetically-related compounds (sulfolipids) from cyanobacterial cultures. On-Line Process Diagnosis Methods: A major objective of the chemical/petrochemical process industries is to achieve incident free operation. Currently, abnormal process situations often go undetected by plant operators/personnel until alarms are triggered. Profs. Karen McDonald and Ahmet Palazoglu are working on the development of general techniques for detecting trends in process data and classifying these trends. To facilitate data compression while preserving the main features of the data, they are using wavelet decomposition followed by symbolic representation using fuzzy triangular episodes. Hidden Markov models are used to classify these trends as normal, abnormal or uncertain. The goal of the work is to develop automated methods to detect abnormal process situations as they arise and notify plant operators at the pre-alarm stage. | ||
Laboratories | ||
| Bioprocess Engineering Laboratories: The bioprocess engineering laboratories are equipped with fully instrumented bioreactors (two 5-liter New Brunswick BioFlo 3000 with computer interface, a 2-liter New Brunswick Bioflo II continuous bioreactor, several 2-liter New Brunswick Multigen bioreactors, and two 1-liter New Brunswick Multigen bioreactors), a microplate luminometer, an automated ion exchange purification system, gel electrophoresis and electroblotting apparatus, a Hewlett Packard 1050 HPLC, UV-visible spectrophotometers, gas chromatograph, laminar flow hood, sugar analyzer, automated particle counters, centrifuges, temperature-controlled incubators and shakers, and personal computers for data acquisition and data analysis. Other ancillary equipment available in the department includes autoclaves, and freeze dryers. Additional equipment available on campus includes capillary electrophoresis systems, GC-mass spectrometers, PCR systems, DNA synthesizers, and ELISA plate readers. | ||
Support | ||
| National Science Foundation ASI Corporation | ||
Publications | ||
| J. C. Wong, K. A. McDonald and A. Palazoglu, "Classification of Process Trends Based on Fuzzified Symbolic Representation and Hidden Markov Models", J. Process Control, 8:395-408 (1998). N.-J. Remi Shih, K. A. McDonald, A. M. Dandekar, T. Girbes, R. Iglesias, A.P. Jackman, “A Novel Type-1Ribosome-Inactivating Protein Isolated from the Extracellular Fluid of Transformed Suspension Cultures of Trichosanthes kirilowii”, Plant Cell Reports 17:531-537 (1998). N.-J. Remi Shih, K. A. McDonald, A. P. Jackman, T. Girbes, R. Iglesias, “Bifunctional Plant Defence Enzymes with Chitinase and Ribosome Inactivating Activities from Trichsoanthes kirilowii Cell Cultures”, Plant Science 130: 145-150 (1997). Michael R. Stoner, Christopher A. Humphrey, Danielle J. Coutts, N.-J. Remi Shih, Karen A. McDonald and Alan. P. Jackman, “Kinetics of Growth and Ribsome-Inactivating Protein Production from Trichosanthes kirilowii Plant Cell Cultures in a 5 Liter Bioreactor, Biotechnology Progress 13:799-804 (1997). S.D. Archer, K. A. McDonald and A.P. Jackman, “Effect of Light Irradiance on the Production of Sulfolipids from Anabaena 7120 in a Fed-Batch Photobioreactor,” Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 67:15-28 (1997) K. Fruzzetti, A. Palazoglu, and K.A. McDonald, "Nonlinear Model Predictive Control Using Hammerstein Models" Journal of Control 7:31-41 (1997). N.-J. Remi Shih and K. A. McDonald, "Purification and Characterization of Chitinases from Transformed Callus Suspension Cultures of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim." Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering, 84: 28-34 (1997). S.D. Archer, K. A. McDonald and A.P. Jackman, "Effect of Light Irradiance on the Production of Sulfolipids from Anabaena 7120 in a Fed-Batch Photobioreactor," Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 67:15-28 (1997). G. L. Young, K. A. McDonald and A. Palazoglu, "Thermal Stress Analysis of Crystal Growth in a Horizontal Bridgman Furnace" Journal of Crystal Growth, 171: 361-372 (1997). N. Bhatia, K.A. McDonald, A.P. Jackman and A.M. Dandekar, "A Simplified Procedure for the Purification of Trichosanthin (A Type I Ribosome Inactivating Protein) from Trichosanthes kirilowii Root Tubers", Protein Expression and Purification, 7:143-146 (1996). |
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