Carrie A Eckert

Bio

Carrie Eckert Ph.D. is the Synthetic Biology group leader starting in July 2021. She had previous appointments at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Colorado, Boulder under the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). Her research is focused on developing tools to enable and accelerate the genetic manipulation and metabolic engineering of a number of eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems. Specifically, she is most interested in the development of high throughput, CRISPR-based methods for genotype-phenotype discovery for applications in metabolic engineering. She serves as the Genetic Tools Team Lead for the BER BRC the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI), with research focused on Clostridium thermocellum and Pseudomonas putida KT2440 engineering. She is also a co-PI for the Secure Ecosystem Engineering and Design (SEED) SFA where she is working on developing CRISPR systems for key soil microbes associating with Poplar. She is also associated with the Agile Biofoundry (led by LBNL) where she applies her expertise to multiple chassis organisms. In addition, she is involved in research in collaboration with Ryan Gill (CU Boulder/Danish Technical University), Adam Arkin (LBNL), and Chris Voigt (MIT) to adapt high throughput genome editing and regulatory circuit tools for DOE-relevant non-model microbes, specifically the cyanobacteria Synechococcus PCC7002, the bacteria Zymomonas mobilis, and the yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus. She is beginning work lead by Mark Blenner (University of Delaware) with Kevin Solomon (University of Delaware), Adam Guss (ORNL), and others to develop genetic tools to engineer microbes capable of plastic upcycling in mealworm guts to better understand their metabolic pathways and interactions. Previous work includes hydrogenase studies in the cyanobacteria Synechocystis PCC6803, the purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria Rubrivivax gelatinosus CBS, and the chemolithoautotroph Cupriavidus necator, among others.

Publications