Dr. Timothy J. Donohue

Our laboratory analyzes pathways and networks cells use to generate biomass or biofuels from sunlight or other renewable sources of energy. To dissect this fundamentally important problem, we are studying metabolic and regulatory pathways of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. By taking advantage of the R. sphaeroides genome sequence, microarrays, proteomics and molecular techniques are being used to determine how the energy in sunlight or renewable nutrients is diverted into processes like cell growth or formation of biofuels.
Specific interests include determining how cells sense the presence of singlet oxygen, a byproduct of solar energy capture during photosynthesis, the role of alternative sigma factors in this response, and the gene products used by cells to repair or prevent the toxic effects of this reactive oxygen species. Approaches taken to solve these problems include biochemical analysis of the interaction of singlet oxygen with purified proteins, computational, genetic, and genome-wide analyses of genes and proteins involved in the response to this reactive oxygen species, and physiological analysis to determine the function of these gene products in the response to singlet oxygen.
The long range goals are to identify metabolic and regulatory activities that are critical to bioenergy formation, to obtain a thorough understanding of energy-generating pathways of agricultural, environmental and medical importance, and to use computational models to help design microbial machines with increased capacity to utilize solar energy, generate renewable sources of energy, remove toxic compounds, or synthesize biodegradable polymers.

Academic Experience:
- Editorial Board - Journal of Bacteriology, January 1988 - 1999
- Chair -American Society for Microbiology Graduate Student Travel Awards Committee, July, 1991 - June, 1993
- Co-Organizer - Midwest Procaryotic Molecular Genetics and Physiology Club, 1992 - 1999
- Study Section - National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program, 1995 - 1997
- Chair-Elect - Genetics and Molecular Biology Divisional Group, American Society for Microbiology (July 1995 - June 1996)
- Selection Committee - American Society for Microbiology Carski Teaching Award (July, 1995 - June 1996)
- Public Communications Committee - American Society for Microbiology (July 1995- Present)
- Director and Principal Investigator - NIH Biotechnology Graduate Training Program at UW-Madison (January 1996 - Present)
- Chair - Genetics and Molecular Biology Divisional Group, American Society for Microbiology (July 1996 - June 1997)
- Chair - American Society for Microbiology Carski Teaching Award (July, 1996 - June 1998)
- Member of the Editorial Board- Microbiology, July 1997 - 2002
- Councilor-at-Large - American Society for Microbiology, July, 1998 - June 2000
- Member - NIGMS Biomedical Research & Institutional Research Training Grants Study Section,July 1999 - Present
- Member of the Editorial Board/Editor - Archives of Microbiology, July 2001 - Present
- Editor - Microbiology, July 2002 - June 2007
- Editor - Archives of Microbiology, July 2002- June 2007

Awards:
- Burroughs-Wellcome/American Society for Microbiology Visiting Professor of Microbiology, Oakland University, Oakland, MI, March, 2002
- Elected Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology, October 1999
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Pound Research Excellence Award, 1993
- National Institutes of Health National Research ServiceAward, June 1980 - May 1983
- American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, June 1980 (Declined)
- Illinois Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, June 1980 (Declined)
- Alfred E. Sobel prize for outstanding undergraduate research in biochemistry andlife sciences; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, June, 1975

We are beginning new programs to use a syatems biology approach to probe featurss of microbes that are of industrial, medical agricultural and environmental significance. In addition, we are using these approaches to assess how variation of genetic traits impacts the production of biofuels from biomass and the function or and communication of individual species in communities or ecosystems.

We have also initiated a new program to determine how cells sense and respond to singlet oxygen, a reactive oxygen species that is a tosci by product of photosynthesis and is used by many eucaryotic cells to defend against unwanated microbial pathogens

Biofuels
Microbial Biotechnology
Metabolic Engineering
Microbial Bioremediation
Microbial Biosensors
Microbial Bioenergy
Synthetic/Systems Microbiology