Faculty Profile
Kevin V. Solomon
Thomas & Kipp Gutshall Career Development Associate Professor
Education
- Doctorate – 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Masters – 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Bachelors – 2006 McMaster University, Canada
About Kevin V. Solomon (h3)
Mircoorganisms are among the most innovative chemists, catalyzing powerful chemistries at ambient conditions with high specificity. With emerging techniques from systems and synthetic biology, my lab characterizes and harnesses these capabilities to address grand challenges in sustainability, human health, and food safety. We also create novel synthetic biology tools via protein and genetic engineering to accelerate development of these platforms for industry.
Current areas of interest include:
- lignocellulosic bioenergy and sustainable small molecule production
- biotemplated nanomaterial synthesis
- whole cell biosensors
- medical diagnostics and novel gene editing technologies
Select Publications
- RR Klauer, DA Hansen, D Wu, LM Oliveira Monteiro, KV Solomon*, MA Blenner*, Biological Upcycling of Plastic Waste, Ann Rev Chem Eng, in press (2024). doi: 10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-100522-115850
- B Graver, N Chakravarty, KV Solomon*, Prokaryotic argonautes for in vivo biotechnology and molecular diagnostics, Trends in Biotechnology, 42 (1): 61-73 (2024)
- AJ Vaidya, M Rammohan, YH Lee, KZ Lee, CY Chou, Z Hartley, CA Scott, RG Susler, L Wang, LS Loesch-Fries, MT Harris, KV Solomon*, Engineering Alkaline-Stable Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus-Like Particles for Efficient Surface Modification, Biochemical Engineering Journal, 199: 109062 (2023)
- C Hooker, R Hanafy, ET Hillman, J Muñoz, KV Solomon*, A genetic engineering toolbox for the lignocellulolytic anaerobic gut fungus Neocallimastix frontalis, ACS Synthetic Biology, 12 (4): 1034-1045 (2023)
- AJ Vaidya, KV Solomon*, Surface Functionalization of Rod Shaped Viral-Like Particles for Biomedical Applications, ACS Applied Bio Materials, 5 (5): 1980-1989 (2022)
- KZ Lee, MA Mechikoff, MK Parasa, T Rankin, P Pandolfi, K Fitzgerald, E Hillman, KV Solomon*, Repurposing the homing endonuclease I-SceI for positive selection and development of gene editing technologies, ACS Syn Biol, 11 (1): 53-60 (2022)
- KZ Lee, MA Mechikoff, A Kikla, A Liu, P Pandolfi, K Fitzgerald, F Gimble, KV Solomon*, NgAgo possesses guided DNA nicking activity, Nucleic Acids Research, 49 (17): 9926-9937 (2021)
- ET Hillman, M Li, CA Hooker, J Englaender, IR Wheeldon, KV Solomon*, Hydrolysis of lignocellulose by anaerobic fungi produces free sugars and organic acids for two-stage fine chemical production with Kluyveromyces marxianus, Biotechnology Progress, 37 (5): e3172 (2021)
- CH Haitjema, SP Gilmore, JK Henske, KV Solomon, R de Groot, A Kuo, S Mondo, AA Salamov, K LaButti, Z Zhao, J Chinquy, K Barry, HM Brewer, SO Purvine, AT Wright, B Boxma, T van Alen, JHP Hackstein, SE Baker, K Barry, IV Grigoriev, MA O’Malley*, A Parts List for Fungal Cellulosomes Revealed by Comparative Genomics. Nature Microbiology, 2:17087, (2017)
- KV Solomon, CH Haitjema, JK Henske, SP Gilmore, D Borges-Rivera, A Lipzen, HM Brewer, SO Purvine, AT Wright, MK Theodorou, IV Grigoriev, A Regev, DA Thompson, MA O’Malley*. Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass degrading enzymes. Science, 351 (6278): 1192 – 1195, (2016)
Patents (h3)
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Awards
- AIChE Division 15 Early Career Award (2023)
- ACS BIOT Young Investigator Award (2023)
- Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award (NOBCChE) (2023)
- Microorganisms Young Investigator Award (2022)
- Invited Speaker at National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2022 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Seattle, WA (2022)
- SIMB Early Career Award (2022)
- NSF CAREER Award (2022
- US Department of Energy Early Career Award (2019)
- Congressional testimony before the 116th US Congress (2019)
- Most Outstanding Faculty, Purdue University Residences (2018)
Research Areas
Biomolecular, cellular & metabolic engineering; Integrated omics/systems biology; synthetic biology; protein engineering; microbial genetics