Thomas Brutnell on Blogger: 2023

Monday, April 24, 2023

Synthetic Biology Market Grows as Companies Tap into Its Innovation

A researcher from Chesterfield, Missouri, Thomas (Tom) Brutnell, PhD, has spent 25 years as a principal investigator studying genomes, genetics, and molecular biology. Dr Thomas Brutnell, the founder of Viridis Genomics Consulting, LLC, has interests in Chinese medicinal plants, plant tissue culture and transformation, and synthetic biology.

A January 2023 article in the business publication, BigThink, reported that the market for synthetic biology is poised for growth. The current global synthetic biology market was valued at $10.11 billion in 2021, with a possible growth of $32.73 billion in 2028. Further, this is based on a compounded annual growth rate of 27.1 percent between 2022 and 2028.

Synthetic biology involves redesigning or reconstructing biological entities to advance processes. The technology has been around since the early 1980s when it revolutionized insulin production by inserting a human gene into a bacterium. In essence, the technology engineers microbes as a part of biomanufacturing using enzymes, chemicals, and other bio-based materials.

Two companies are leading the way in using synthetic biology. Bayer partner, Gingko BioWorks, uses the technology to help other innovators manufacture plastic munching microbes and improve beauty products. Inscripta uses its CRISPR genome editing technology to produce chemical and bio-based products. This company’s genome technology has gone beyond simply reading DNA to writing it to accelerate biomanufacturing.

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Monday, January 23, 2023

Efficiently Introducing New Traits with Genetic Engineering

Thomas “Tom” Brutnell is an industry leader in the field of agricultural biotechnology and the president of Viridis Genomics Consulting. His professional focus centers around genome (genetic) engineering, a discipline that began in the early 1980s when a research team led by Bob Fraley successfully utilized Agrobacterium tumefaciens to manipulate plant cells with the help of recombinant DNA. This led to the development of an array of genetically engineered crops, including corn and soybeans.

Genome engineering is different from traditional plant genetics, as it involves extracting DNA from one organism and introducing it into another, resulting in an organism which has specific desired traits. In order for this process to be successful, genes must first be located, cloned and characterized in order to determine their expression, and then transformed into a crop plant’s cells. Brutnell is well-versed in this cutting-edge technology and continues to provide innovative solutions for crop improvement.

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About Thomas Brutnell

Thomas Brutnell is a longtime presence in the biotechnology development sphere who has a focus on plant genomics and genetics. As founder of Viridis Genomics Consulting in Missouri, Thomas Brutnell provides advice to industrial and academic communities on genome engineering. He is integrating genome-wide association studies within a molecular genetics framework to better identify genome editing targets and developing new ways of deploying genome editing technologies toward the creation of novel genetic variations.

Dr. Brutnell earned his doctorate in biology at Yale University and pursued his thesis work on the topic “Epigenetic regulation of the maize transposable elements Activator and Dissociation.” Through both classical and molecular genetic analysis, his work demonstrated novel processes associated with DNA methylation that were capable of altering gene expression.

From 2000 to 2011, Dr. Brutnell served as principal investigator at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University and led efforts to develop tools for gene discovery in maize. This included mutagenizing the maize genome through use of Ac/Ds transposable elements. In addition, Thomas Brutnell directed efforts that employed microarray and RNAseq technologies in developing global gene expression platforms.