Christopher W. Johnson is a Senior Scientist at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, in 2011. His work at NLR uses synthetic biology to engineer microbes to convert renewable feedstocks such as lignin and formate into value-added chemicals, and materials.
Projects in the Agile BioFoundry
- Host selection
- Host & pathway engineering
- High-throughput screening and molecule expansion
- Strategic partnerships
Featured Publications
Johnson, C.W.*, Salvachúa, D.*, Rorrer, N.A.*, Black, B.A.*, Vardon, D.R.*, John, P.C.S.*, Cleveland, N.S., Dominick, G., Elmore, J.R., Grundl, N., Khanna, P., Martinez, C.R., Michener, W.E., Peterson, D.J., Ramirez, K.J., Singh, P., VanderWall, T.A., Wilson, A.N., Yi, X., Biddy, M.J., Bomble, Y.J., Guss, A.M., Beckham, G.T., 2019. Innovative Chemicals and Materials from Bacterial Aromatic Catabolic Pathways. Joule 3, 1523–1537. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2019.05.011
Tumen-Velasquez, M.*, Johnson, C.W.*, Ahmed, A., Dominick, G., Fulk, E.M., Khanna, P., Lee, S.A., Schmidt, A.L., Linger, J.G., Eiteman, M.A., Beckham, G.T., Neidle, E.L., 2018. Accelerating pathway evolution by increasing the gene dosage of chromosomal segments. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 7105–7110. doi:10.1073/pnas.1803745115
Johnson, C.W., Abraham, P.E., Linger, J.G., Khanna, P., Hettich, R.L., Beckham, G.T., 2017. Eliminating a global regulator of carbon catabolite repression enhances the conversion of aromatic lignin monomers to muconate in Pseudomonas putida KT2440. Metab. Eng. Commun. 5, 19–25. doi:10.1016/j.meteno.2017.05.002
Johnson, C.W., Salvachúa, D., Khanna, P., Smith, H., Peterson, D.J., Beckham, G.T., 2016. Enhancing muconic acid production from glucose and lignin-derived aromatic compounds via increased protocatechuate decarboxylase activity. Metab. Eng. Commun. 3, 111–119. doi:10.1016/j.meteno.2016.04.002
Beckham, G.T., Johnson, C.W., Karp, E.M., Salvachúa, D., Vardon, D.R., 2016. Opportunities and challenges in biological lignin valorization. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 42, 40–53. doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2016.02.030
Johnson, C.W., Beckham, G.T., 2015. Aromatic catabolic pathway selection for optimal production of pyruvate and lactate from lignin. Metab. Eng. 28, 240–247. doi:10.1016/j.ymben.2015.01.005