Throughout my career, I have explored methane metabolism - a set of unique biochemical conversions that shapes global climate, balances the carbon cycle and provides endless possibilities for sustainable bio-catalysis. My current research interests lie in these interconnected areas: 1. Describe the environmental distribution of methane metabolism, a core biological function that controls methane emission and thus global climate, using a system-wide perspective; 2. Improve our understanding of subcellular organization of the microbial metabolic network; 3. Develop microbial catalysts for conversion of flared/vented methane into green chemicals.

Research Interests

• System Biology of Methane Metabolism

• Microbial Biochemistry, Genetics, and Metabolic Engineering

• Environmental Microbiology: Methane Cycle and Bioremediation

• Sustainable Engineering: Methane to Chemicals Conversion

Credentials

• PhD (Microbiology) from the Center for Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences; IBPM, Russia

• BS/MS (Biology, Microbiology) from the Department of Microbiology, Dnepropetrovsk State University; Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

• Postdoctoral training (Molecular Biology, Gene Engineering, and Biotechnology) from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University; Moscow, Russia

Professional Appointments

• Research Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington (2006 - Present)

• Research Associate, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington (2001 - 2006)

• Junior Research Scientist, G.K. Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry & Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences (1997 - 2002)

• Engineering-investigator, G.K. Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry & Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of SSciences (1995 - 1997)

• Junior-High School Chemistry Teacher (1994-1996)

Research Projects

• (PI) NSF Grant MCB 0842686: Oxidation pathways in proteobacteria: function and regulation.

• (Co-PI) DOE DE-SC0005154: Systems level insights into alternate methane cycling modes in a freshwater lake via community transcriptomics, metabolomics and nanoSIMS analysis.

• (Co-PI) ARPA-E: BIO-MTL: Novel Biocatalyst for Conversion of Natural Gas into Diesel Fuel.

• (PI) JGI //DOE (CSP-projects): Revising methanotrophy: a comprehensive genomic probing of the unexpected genetic and metabolic diversity of aerobic methane consuming bacteria.

• (PI) JGI //DOE (CSP-projects): Integrating microbial diversity and function in nature: metabolic versatility of methylotrophic Rhodocyclales.

• (PI) JGI //DOE (CSP-projects): Coupling function to genomics via single-cell phenotyping and genome sequencing