Ramon Gonzalez

Research Interests:

Metabolic Engineering

Functional Genomics: Transcriptomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, and Fluxomics

Systems Biology

Microbial Fermentations

Education:

B.S. (1993) Central University of Las Villas, Cuba

M.S. (1999) Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile

Ph.D. (2001) University of Chile, Chile

Postdoctoral Associate (2001-2002), Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida

Our research focuses on microbial catalysis in an effort to understand how microbial cells function and how they can be manipulated to produce valuable chemicals.

Although microorganisms are intrinsically capable of biosynthesizing a wide range of useful chemicals (i.e. metabolites), they typically do so at concentrations and rates that do not correspond to those required for commercial production. A complex network of regulatory, enzymatic, and transport processes determines which metabolite is synthesized (and at what level) under a given environmental condition. We believe then that the successful manipulation of cellular metabolism requires an understanding of these biological processes. This constitutes our research philosophy, which is brought to practice by using functional genomics and system biology tools and putting them to the service of both pathway discovery and metabolic engineering.

The contributions from every research project in our group are two-fold. First, from a fundamental standpoint, we contribute to the (improved) understanding of the biological process under study. Second, from an applied standpoint, we use the gained knowledge to design and implement strategies for the production of the desired chemical.

We are addressing several exciting and challenging issues in microbial catalysis such as understanding and manipulating vitamins and cofactors biosynthesis, the anaerobic fermentation of non-traditional carbon sources, the simultaneous metabolism of sugars in sugar mixtures, and understanding and modifying respiratory and fermentative systems for the synthesis of oxidized and reduced products. Specific research areas include metabolic engineering, functional genomics, systems biology, molecular modeling, and microbial fermentation technology. We use a wide spectrum of approaches and state-of-the-art techniques typically viewed under different scientific and engineering disciplines such as chemical engineering, biochemistry, and molecular biology.

Selected Publications

1. Murarka, A., Clomburg, J. M., Moran, S., Shanks, J.V., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Metabolic analysis of wild-type Escherichia coli and a pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC)-deficient derivative reveals the role of PDHC in the fermentative metabolism of glucose. J. Biol. Chem. 285 (41): 31548-31558.
2. Blankschien, M. D., Clomburg, J. M., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of succinate from glycerol. Metab. Eng. 12 (5): 409-419.
3. Dellomonaco, C., Rivera, C., Campbell, P., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Engineered respiro-fermentative metabolism for the production of biofuels and biochemicals from fatty acid-rich feedstocks. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76 (15): 5067-5078.
4. Mazumdar, S., Clomburg, J. M., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Engineered Escherichia coli strains for the homofermentative production of D-lactic acid from glycerol. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76 (13): 4327-4336.
5. Clomburg, J. M., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Biofuel production in Escherichia coli: the role of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. App. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 86 (2): 419-434. (Invited).
6. Murarka, A., Clomburg, J., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Metabolic flux analysis of wild-type Escherichia coli and mutants deficient in pyruvate-dissimilating enzymes during fermentative metabolism of glucuronate. Microbiology-SGM 156 (6): 1860 - 1872.
7. Rodriguez-Moya, M., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Systems biology approaches for the microbial production of biofuels. Biofuels 1(2): 291–310. (Invited).
8. Dharmadi, Y., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). Elementary Network Reconstruction: A framework for the analysis of regulatory networks in biological systems. J. Theor. Biol. 263(4): 499-509.
9. Gonzalez, R., Campbell, P., and Wong, M. (2010). Production of ethanol from thin stillage by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli. Biotechnol. Lett. 32 (3): 405-411.
10. Dellomonaco, C., Fava, F., and Gonzalez, R. (2010). The path to next generation biofuels: successes and challenges in the era of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Microbial Cell Factories 9:3.(Invited).
11. Yazdani, S. S., Mattam, A.J., and Gonzalez, R.* (2010). Fuel and chemical production from glycerol, a biodiesel waste product. In: “Biofuels from Agricultural Wastes and Byproducts”. Blaschek H., Ezeji T., and Scheffran, J. (Eds.). Blackwell Publishing, Ames, IA. (Invited).

CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING DEPT. MS-362
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