At Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Dr. Laible specializes in Biophysics, with a research emphasis on the metabolic engineering and functional characterization of membrane proteins. He joined ANL in 1995 as a post-doc where he examined the functional consequences of substitutions in membrane protein complexes of known structure that perform the initial energy and electron transfer reactions in photosynthetic organisms. He has secured funding from a variety of government and industrial agencies, including the DOE, NIH, DARPA, and pharmaceutical and agribusiness companies. His team specializes in engineered variants of membrane protein complexes for directed abiotic applications, and he has led a large interdisciplinary, inter-institutional effort focused on the design of novel reagents for their stabilization and crystallization. Activities have recently expanded into the use of the tools that his team has developed in schemes designed to produce next-generation biofuels and bioproducts. He also has long-standing interests in understanding the behavior of microorganisms in communities and regulatory mechanisms involved in energy, nutrient, and carbon utilization. The ANL team he directs has extensive expertise in microfluidics, biosensors, deep learning, and genetic tools development and collaborates closely with researchers engaged in life-cycle analyses.
Projects in the Agile BioFoundry
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Featured Publications
Larsen, P.E., S. Zerbs, P. D. Laible, F. R. Collart, P. Korajczyk, Y. Dai, P. Noirot. Modeling the Pseudomonas Sulfur Regulome as Quantification, Storage, and Communication of Information. Submitted. 2017.
Laible, P.D. and S. W. Snyder. Engineered Photosynthetic Bacteria, Methods of Manufacture of Biofuels. US 9,441,248 B2. Full utility granted March 29, 2016.
Laible, P.D. and D.K. Hanson. Cell-free system for synthesizing membrane proteins. US 8,455,231 B2. Issued June 4, 2013.
Faries, K.M., L.L. Kressel, M.J. Wander, D. Holten, P.D. Laible, C. Kirmaier, and D.K. Hanson. High Throughput Engineering to Revitalize a Vestigial Electron Transfer Pathway in Bacterial Photosynthetic Reaction Centers. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 287: 8507-8514. (2012).
Laible, P.D., D.L. Mielke and D.K. Hanson. 2011. Membrane protein production in Rhodobacter: a practical guide. In: Robinson, A. (ed) Production of membrane proteins: strategies for expression and isolation. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. pp 167-198.
Hanson, D. K., D. L. Mielke, and P. D. Laible. 2009. Harnessing photosynthetic bacteria for membrane protein production. In: Current Topics in Membranes (DJ Benes and SA Simon, eds.), Academic Press, Elsevier Inc., San Diego, 63:51-82.