Project Design

Christian Banchs

*** ************ ****** 434-***-**** (Mobile)

Charlottesville, VA 22901 ****@********.***

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Charlottesville, VA

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Department of Molecular Physiology& Biological Physics

Research Associate July 2010 Present

Increased Membrane protein production 400% yield to 0.5mg/ml by trouble shooting affinity tag design &

purification protocol

• Bacterial cell growth & expression induction temperature

• Affinity tag purification, Size Exclusion Chromatography (ÄKTA System) & membrane seperation

Raised fluorescence binding data acquisition 300% by incorporating Micro Cuvette & 384-well plate format

Combined productivity gains of 1200% made project scale & scope feasible

• X-ray crystallographic structure analysis for rational design of point mutants

• Binding affinity measurements of 16 point mutants

• Comparison of relative affinities for 6 substrates

• Dependence of Binding Affinity on pH & different cations

• Protein thermostability studies

Managed performance & productivity of with three junior lab members by instituting a 5-step process to

quickly identify bottlenecks, monitor progress and assure product quality

Led or contributed in all project stages including initiation, experimentation, data analysis & presentation

Expanded lab expertise & technical repertoire to achieve project aims

• 14C Radioactivity measurements for cellular uptake & efflux of compounds

• Membrane protein reconstitution into bicelles & liposomes (suitable for ion/pH gradient measurements)

• Designed Fluorescence Polarization, Fluorescence Enhancement & FRET based binding experiments

to measure binding affinities

• Fluorescence lifetime & Anisotropy decay studies using TCSPC spectrometer Delta-Pro & DAS6

Software

• Single-site introduction of cysteines for labeling in solvent accessibility studies (in vivo & in vitro)

• IsoThermal Calorimetry studies using ITC MicroCal device & software

• Competitive inhibition experiments to determine IC50 & Ki values of various compounds

• Lipidic Cubic Phase crystallization screening of membrane proteins

• Generation & isolation of Fab fragments from monoclonal antibodies

• Ion-exchange chromatography & quantitative western blotting

• Enzyme activity & kinetics assays (Nuclease, F0F1-ATPase & Menaquinone/Vitamin-K precursor pathway)

EDUCATION

Charlottesville, VA

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Biophysics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Dissertation Title: Binding and Transport of Cyanocobalamin in Escherichia coli

Awarded $80k Cell & Molecular Biology Training Grant, 2003-2005

Presented research findings on A novel fluorescence assay for the measurement of cobalamin bindin g to the

outer membrane transporter BtuB at the Biophysical Society Meeting, 2006

Structural & Computational Biology & Biological Physics Graduate Student Retreat, Co -Organizer & secured

event venue, 2008 & 2009

Gainesville, FL

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Chemistry with Biochemistry Option, Bachelors of Science (BS)

Published & presented The Structure of an Anti-parallel Actin Dimer at Annual American Crystallographic

Association Meeting, 2002

Including Advanced Mathematics through Calculus III & Differential Equations

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

The following work provides expertise in membrane protein production & gene construct design,

development of protein receptor binding assays (including high throughput formats), identification of hot

spot binding residues, radio-activity cellular uptake assays, membrane protein reconstitution into

liposomes with ion gradients, crystallization of membrane proteins (inclu ding lipidic cubic phase),

analysis & interpretation of X-ray crystallographic data and rational mutation of protein structure, as well

as experience in light scattering, circular dichroism, ITC and mass spectrometry methods

Substrate Binding to the Multidrug Transporter MepA and the Detergent Effect, submitted,

PROTEINS

The Structure of MepB from Staphylococcus aureus & Insight into its Role in Drug

Resistance, in preparation, Journal of Microbiology

The Role of R497 in High Affinity Binding of BtuB to Cobalamins, in preparation Proceedings

of National Academy of Sciences

Biophysical Society Meeting, 2006: Poster: 2568-Pos

Outer membrane active transport: structure of the BtuB:TonB complex

Science. 2006 Jun 2; 312(5778):1396-9

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of the Escherichia coli outer

membrane cobalamin transporter BtuB in complex with the carboxy-terminal domain of

TonB. Acta Crystallogr Sect, 2006 Jul 1;62 (Pt 7):638-41

Outer membrane active transport: structure of the BtuB:TonB complex

Science. 2006 Jun 2; 312(5778):1396-9

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS & INTERESTS

Biophysical Society, Member, January 2005 Present

UVA Post-Doc On-boarding, Help new Post-Docs transition to UVA & Post Doc role, January 2012

Present

Co-Organizer of UVA Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics Membrane Biology

Seminar, Spring 2012

Organizer of National Postdoc Appreciation Week & planned Postdoc Chalk Talk sessions, Cross

Departmental Social Mixers & Family Day activities, May 2013 Present

New Horizons Travel Grant Committee & designed grant scoring format & criteria, also compiled

results for awards to UVA Postdocs seeking funding for travel, January 2013 Present

South Florida Freedivers Association, Founding Member & Media Editing, 2005 Present

Baking Cheesecake & Focaccia Poker Linguistics

Soccer

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