Joanne Chory, PhD Professor and Director, Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology
Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory

 Joanne Chory is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where she directs the Plant Biology Laboratory.  She is the inaugural chair holder of the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology. She is also Adjunct Professor of Biology at the University of California, San Diego. 

Steve Briggs, PhD Distinguished Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology
University of California, San Diego

Steve Briggs conducts research on the innate immunity of photosynthetic organisms, including plants and algae. Briggs develops and applies proteome-wide mass spectrometry methods to discover signaling networks. Before moving to UCSD in 2004, Briggs spent several years in industry at Pioneer/DuPont; Novartis; Syngenta; and Diversa. Since moving to UCSD, Briggs has co-founded two La Jolla-based companies: Sapphire Energy (algal biofuel) and JadeBio (proteomics services). Briggs serves as Co-Chair of the Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee that guides all federal research on biomass (including biofuels). Briggs is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Stephen Mayfield, PhD Director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, John Doves Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy
University of California, San Diego

Steve’s research focuses on the molecular genetics of green algae, and on the recombinant production of therapeutic proteins and biofuel molecules using algae as a production platform. Steve received BS degrees in Biochemistry and Plant Biology from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from UC Berkeley.  Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Geneva Switzerland he returned to California as an assistant professor at the Scripps Research Institute where he was the first person to achieve transformation of the green algae C. reinhardtii nuclear genome, work that allowed this algae to become the dominant genetic organisms for the study of photosynthesis and gene function.  Steve remained at Scripps for 22 years becoming the Associate Dean of Biology before joining UC San Diego in 2009. Over the last ten years work from the lab has identified mechanisms of chloroplast gene expression that has allowed for recombinant protein expression and metabolic engineering in algal chloroplast.  Steve’s lab was the first to show high levels of recombinant protein expression in algae, setting the stage for the use of algae as a platform for recombinant protein production, including the expression of a human monoclonal antibody. These studies resulted in the founding of Rincon Pharmaceutical, a startup company based on the low cost production of human therapeutics using eukaryotic algae as an expression platform. Recent studies from the lab have shown the potential of engineering algae for the production of superior biofuel molecules as a source of renewal energy.  Steve is also a scientific founder of Sapphire Energy, a company developing biofuel production by metabolic engineering of algae and photosynthetic bacteria.

Geoffrey Price, PhD Collaborator

Currently Professor and Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Tulsa, Dr. Price has been an educator and researcher for over thirty years. He has been at his current position for ten years and also was on the faculty at Louisiana State University for over twenty years, where he still enjoys status as Emeritus Professor. A Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and member of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Price shares invaluable expertise about refinery and petrochemical operations, and contributes to Sapphire’s success by bridging the gap between Sapphire’s "Green Crude" and crude oil. Dr. Price has especially provided expertise and experimental data on the conversion of green crude into fuels that fit directly into the current transportation infrastructure.

Dr. Price's research interests are primarily in zeolites and zeolite catalysis, and he has recently been focusing on catalytic cracking of green crude and model compounds associated with green crude. Over many years, significant progress has been made in Dr. Price's labs in several areas, including solid-state ion-exchange of zeolites and alkylamine probes of zeolitic cations. Dr. Price and his co-workers were the first to identify and describe important solid-state ion-exchange processes of zeolites. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lamar University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University.

Dan Crunkleton, PhD Collaborator

Dr. Crunkleton is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tulsa and is the director of the Tulsa Institute of Alternative Energy Institute. He currently oversees in excess of $1 million in externally funded research in the alternative energy field, with a concentration in transportation fuel production from algae. He has also co-advised student competitions to design, model, and manufacture the next-generation of hybrid-electric vehicles.

Dr. Crunkleton received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1995, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida in 2002, and a J.D. degree from the University of Tulsa in 2009. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a licensed attorney-at-law in the state of Oklahoma. He has also worked as a Research Associate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, a Visiting Researcher at the University of Paris-South in Orsay, France, and a NASA Graduate Student Research Fellow at the University of Florida.

Joe Chappell, PhD Collaborator

Dr. Chappell has been on the faculty at the University of Kentucky since 1985, where he has developed an internationally recognized research program pioneering the molecular genetics and biochemistry of natural products in plants. His research has focused on the mechanisms plants use to defend themselves against microbial pathogens, and the biosynthesis of terpene-type compounds, especially those with agricultural, medicinal and industrial applications.

Dr. Chappell earned his B.A. degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1981 from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He pursued his postdoctoral studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany and the Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany where he worked on the isolation and characterization of the first genes cloned for plant biosynthetic pathways.

Mike Mendez Collaborator

Mr. Mendez has held a number of top industry positions at the forefront of the molecular biology revolution. Through a position at the University of California, San Diego, Mr. Mendez is working with the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology at the forefront of algal genetics and also holds the position as a Senior Research Fellow at Sapphire Energy. Mendez is a co-founder of Sapphire Energy, and served as Vice President of Technology. Previously, he was Director of Bioengineering at GenWay, and Mr. Mendez was also associate director of Exploratory Research at Syrrx, Inc. (presently Takeda Pharmaceuticals). There he established a new department that focused on novel platforms for over-expression, purification, and crystallization of membrane proteins. Mr. Mendez co-founded and led the technical program at MemRx, a structural biology company that focused on the structure determination of membrane proteins, specifically GPCRs. Mr. Mendez is widely regarded as one of the lead pioneers in the development of fully human antibodies and is the lead author and co-inventor of the Xenomouse platform technology that formed Abgenix, Inc., most recently acquired by Amgen for $2.2 billion. He created all the viral vectors for the Cell Genesys Platform technology, GVAX. Mr. Mendez has served as a genetic consultant and scientific adviser for numerous biotech and academic institutions, including Geron Corporation, Gentrol, Inc., Expression Systems, Aliva, Inc., and the California Institute of Technology. He is also the founder and principal scientist of Gryffin Consulting, Inc., a genetic engineering consulting firm specializing in the areas of gene therapy and antibody and membrane protein production.