News

The Pakrasi Lab recently received $1.2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to study the unicellular nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Cyanothece 51142. Cyanothece 51142 is an enigmatic species because it can perform both nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis in the same cell. Normally these two processes are mutually exclusive because the presence of oxygen interferes with nitrogen […]

Himadri Pakrasi recently served as a co-organizer of the inaugural US-Japan Binational Workshop on Photosynthesis. The workshop was held in early October 2019 in Kyoto, Japan and featured presentations from scientists from the United States and Japan participating in photosynthesis research. Pakrasi worked alongside fellow co-organizers Professor Toshiharu Shikanai and Professor Krishna Niyogi to make […]

The recent publication of Pakrasi Lab Postdoctoral Researcher Deng Liu’s manuscript Engineering Nitrogen Fixation Activity in an Oxygenic Phototroph in mBio has received recognition in the Washington University in St. Louis news journal theSource. The news article discusses the agricultural implications of the cyanobacterial strain generated in the paper with regard to fertilizer production. Click the link […]

  Postdoctoral Researcher Cory Knoot recently visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to perform experiments on the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Knoot used the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) facility’s Bio-SANS instrument to collect neutron scattering data. These data have provided valuable insight into Synechocystis 6803 thylakoid membrane structure. More information about this project is available on […]

Himadri Pakrasi was recently interviewed for the Washington University Natural Sciences and Math Podcast. The episode, hosted by Claire Gauen, is entitled Amazing Creatures: Cyanobacteria and features the lab’s favorite organisms. The transcript and audio file of the podcast are available at https://artsci.wustl.edu/ampersand/amazing-creatures-cyanobacteria.