Brenchley Lab
211 South Frear Laboratory
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University Park, PA 16801
Phone:
(814) 865-3330

Our Lab is part of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University. We are affiliated with the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center and the Biogeochemistry Research Initiative for Education.

Visit our MICROBIAL OBSERVATORY website
Our Research Focus:
Temperature extremes can make the difference between life and death, and yet little is known about how proteins function at different temperatures. Other researchers have studied enzymes that are active at extremely high temperatures. Our objective is to discover and analyze novel cold-active enzymes which have high activities at low temperatures and to increase our understanding of how temperature affects enzyme activity. We are also especially interested in characterizing microbes from permanently cold environments and examining their ability to metabolize at subzero temperatures, as in the Greenland ice sheet.

Check out some of our microbes: Rhodoglobus vestalii, sp. nov.; the Arthrobacters!
Current Lab Members: Dr. Vanya Miteva
Dr. Jennifer Loveland-Curtze
    Catherine Teacher

Dr. Jennifer Biddle
    Students:
Brenchley Lab Photo Gallery!
     We currently have 3 undergraduate students in lab  
       
   
Current Projects:    
 

Vanya has recently analyzed ultra-small microbes from the Greenland ice core and will head the efforts on the Greenland Microbial Observatory. She also has worked extensively on characterizing both culturable and unculturable populations in Greenland ice. She has teamed up with Todd Sowers in the Geoscience department for her latest work.

For Vanya's publications, look in Applied and Environmental Microbiology...She recently was an invited speaker at the International conference on Alpine and Polar Microbiology in Austria in 2006!

 

   Jen Loveland-Curtze has worked on the characterization of a novel genus of bacteria designated LV3. This genus is unique in its appearance due to bulbous protuberances seen during growth. It's characterization is detailed here.

Catherine Teacher has been preparing clone libraries from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project. She often calls herself the muscle behind Vanya's brain.

Jen Biddle is working on samples obtained during Leg 201 of the Ocean Drilling Program which sampled areas off the coast of Peru. Jen hopes to identify cold active microbes in these core samples. She also is using FISHSIMS to determine metabolic activities of uncultured microbes. Her co-advisor in this project is Chris House in the Geological Sciences Department.

Look for Jen's publications in PNAS and Geobiology.

      

This and other pages are constantly under construction! Last update Feb. 2007  
Page maintained by Jen Biddle