Center for Phytoremediation Research and Development

Bruce Applegate
	Dr. Applegate’s major role in the project will be to directly supervise the identification of genes involved in degradation of xenobiotics in the rhizosphere. Coupled with this, Dr. Applegate will also supervise the identification of xenobiotic and metal ion regulated promoter elements from rhizospheric microorganisms. Dr. Applegate has extensive experience in the microbiology and molecular biology of xenobiotic degradation and sensor development, making him very well qualified to lead this portion of the Center’s activities.
Kathy Banks
	Dr. Banks will serve as co-director of the Center and will be involved in the collection of rhizosphere microorganisms from the field. She has published extensively in the area of rhizodegradation of organic contaminants. Dr. Banks has access to numerous field sites that may be targeted for center activities. She also serves as the director of the EPA HSRC and will be responsible for integrating Center activities into the HSRC research and industrial partnering programs.
Laszlo Csonka
	Dr Csonka’s major role in the project will be to help develop and implement the cDNA library screens for xenobiotic degradation and metal uptake/tolerance genes. Dr. Csonka will work directly with the PI’s involved in developing the cDNA library screens. Dr. Csonka has many years of experience in the preparation and screening of cDNA expression libraries in both E. coli and yeast and his expertise will be invaluable during operation of the proposed high through-put screens.
Kevin Gibson
	A critical starting component of the project is the collection of tissue samples and seed from 50 different plant species growing on xenobiotic contaminated sites in the US. This material will be used for the preparation of the cDNA libraries used in the xenobiotic degradation screen. Dr. Gibson has extensive ecological fieldwork experience and he will take primary responsibility for these field collections.
Peter Goldsbrough
	Dr. Goldsbrough will be directly responsible for the development and implementation of the GST substrate specificity screen. Dr. Goldsbrough has extensive experience in plant molecular biology and he has long-term interest in the activity and function of GST’s in plants. Dr. Goldsbrough will work closely with Dr. Murphy to develop the LC-MS component of the screen.
John Morgan
	Dr. Morgan will be involved in developing and implementing the P450 substrate specificity screen against a wide range of xenobiotics. Dr. Morgan has experience working with metabolic engineering to enhance the production of plant secondary metabolites. He is also interested in developing high-throughput screens for the identification of enzymes involved in xenobiotic degradation. Additionally, he will be participating in the development of the LC/MS screens.
Angus Murphy
	Dr. Murphy will be directly responsible for the development and implementation of the screen for plant genes involved in xenobiotic degradation. Dr. Murphy has performed important research related to phytoremediation of both heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). His recent research involves the study of a novel group of plant naphthylamidases and he is now working on plant-microbe systems to break down recalcitrant napthylamine compounds in soils. Dr. Murphy has extensive experience in both plant molecular biology and analytical chemistry techniques including LC-MS, both vital to the success of the proposed screen.
David Salt
	Dr. Salt will serve as the director of the Center and also will be directly responsible for the development and running of the screen for cDNA’s involved in metal hyperaccumulation in plants. Dr. Salt is a well-known authority on the physiology and molecular biology of metal hyperaccumulation in plants and this experience will be vital to guide the proposed screen. Dr. Salt also has extensive experience in running high-throughput ICP-MS analysis gained through his directorship of the ionomics laboratory at Purdue University. Dr. Salt will also jointly supervise with Dr. Murphy the identification of xenobiotic and metal ion responsive promoters elements from Arabidopsis thaliana using microarrays. Through Dr. Salt’s participation in the NSF funded Functional Genomics Project, he has direct access to experience gained by this group in Affymetrics microarray experiments.
Paul Schwab
	Dr. Schwab will be directly responsible for all environmental chemistry aspects of the Center projects. Dr. Schwab has extensive experience working with heavy metals and hazardous organics in soil and groundwater and has published in the area of analytical method development for contaminant assessment in soil and water phases.