Plant and Algal Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Texas A&M University
(summer 2019)
Shruthi is a high school student at College Station High School and joined the lab for the summer of 2019. She will be working with Ivette on B. braunii hydrocarbon analysis. Specifically, Shruthi will be analyzing how mutations in the LOS enzyme from the L race of B. braunii affect its ability to produce hydrocarbons.
(summer 2014)
Katelyn joined the lab in the summer of 2014 as an NSF REM (Research Experience and Mentoring) student to carry out research on the fatty acid elongation pathway in the A race of B. braunii for the production of alkadiene/triene hydrocarbons.
Katelyn came to us from College Station A&M Consolidated High School and is currently (as of 03.28.2018) a Senior at the University of North Texas.
(summer 2007, 2008)
I am a freshman at Rice University where I am studying Biochemistry and Cell Biology. My interests include piano, painting, medieval history, and tennis. I have worked as a church pianist for the last four years. I’m also working on an outreach project with Dr. James Tour that puts information from science textbooks into songs and games for children to make the material more accessible.
I first worked in the Devarenne lab as an A&M Consolidated High School junior in the summer of 2007 on cloning a botryococcene methyltransferase (BMT) candidate gene from B. braunii. Botryococcene methyltransferase is the enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of B. braunii botryococcenes, a green alga that is a potential renewable energy source due to its ability to produce liquid hydrocarbons. I returned to the lab in the summer of 2008 after my senior year of high school, helping with a project that deals with the interaction of the SnRK (Sucrose-Non-Fermenting Related Kinase) complex in tomato and the protein Adi3.
Andrey graduated from Rice University and is currently (as of 03.28.2018) an associate consultant at TZMI Technical Consulting.
(summer 2009)
Saum was a high school researcher in the lab during the summer of 2009. He was from College Station A&M Consolidated High School and as of 2010 was an undergraduate student at UC, Berkeley.
Saum worked on the cloning of the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate gene from the B race of B. braunii.
Saum went on to the University of California, Berkeley and has since graduated.