Stephen Mayfield, PhD Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board

 Stephen Mayfield is Director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SDCAB), and the John Dove Isaacs Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of California San Diego. Formerly a Professor of Cell Biology, and Associate Dean of the graduate school at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Dr. Mayfield has worked on the molecular genetics of green algae for over 25 years. His research focuses on understanding gene expression in the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and on the recombinant production of therapeutic protein and biofuel molecules using algae as a production platform. As an assistant professor at Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Mayfield was the first person to achieve transformation of the C. reinhardtii nuclear genome; a work that has allowed this organism to become the dominant genetic organism for the study of photosynthesis and chloroplast function today.

Over the last ten years, Dr. Mayfield’s lab has identified mechanisms of chloroplast gene expression, shown that redox regulation is a dominant mechanism for gene expression in algae, and identified chloroplast protein disulfide isomerase as the molecular entity used for redox regulation in chloroplasts. These basic studies on chloroplast gene expression enabled the Mayfield lab to be the first to show high levels of recombinant protein expression in algal chloroplast. This set the stage for the use of algae as a platform for therapeutic protein production, including the expression of human monoclonal antibodies. These studies resulted in the founding of Rincon Pharmaceutical, a company based on the low cost production of human therapeutics using eukaryotic algae as an expression platform. Recent studies in the lab have demonstrated the utility of green algae for the production of a variety of recombinant proteins, including human therapeutic proteins, metabolic enzymes, and industrial enzymes. Dr. Mayfield serves on a variety of scientific advisory boards, including the National Renewable Energy Lab’s, and the Department of Energy’s Roadmap to Algae Biofuels.

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.

Steve Briggs, PhD Collaborator

Dr. Briggs is currently a professor of Section of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, San Diego. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Briggs has an acclaimed history as an innovator in the field of plant genomics. Dr. Briggs was the first person to isolate and characterize a plant gene for resistance to infectious disease, as well as the first to discover a natural mechanism for plant resistance to infection. He also invented the first reverse genetics technology for plants, which is still widely used in maize research, and was the first to use artificial transcription factors to regulate endogenous genes in plants.

In 1998, Dr. Briggs founded the Torrey Mesa Research Institute (originally as the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute). As President and CEO of TMRI, he led the team that produced a draft sequence of the rice genome, which provided a framework for genomics in all other grass crops (maize, wheat, barley, oats, rye, and sugarcane). Under his direction, TMRI created the first plant (Arabidopsis) GeneChip, the first reverse genetics technology for Arabidopsis, the first crop GeneChip for rice, the first exon GeneChip for Arabidopsis, and the first large-scale plant proteome for rice.

His current research explores infectious disease in plants and the regulation of self-renewal and pluripotency in embryonic stem cells. In addition to his many academic accolades, Dr. Briggs has extensive industry experience. As Research Director at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Dr. Briggs supervised the combined genomics program between Pioneer and DuPont. As Senior Vice President for Corporate Research at Diversa, Dr. Briggs invented the Designed Regulatory Protein (DRP) technology that can regulate any human gene.

Dr. Briggs received his B.S. in botany from the University of Vermont, and his Ph.D. in plant pathology from Michigan State University.

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.

Joanne Chory, PhD Collaborator

Dr. Chory is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA, where she directs the Plant Biology Laboratory. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Biology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Chory is distinguished for her many contributions to modern plant biology, including identifying the first photoreceptor mutants in higher plants and several signal transduction components downstream of these photoreceptors. Her lab has contributed significantly to our understanding of synthesis of the plant hormone auxin, and showed that plants perceive steroid hormones by unique membrane-bound receptors. She and her lab members continue to use the reference plant, Arabidopsis, to identify components of the phototransduction pathways that link changes in the light environment with differential growth and global alteration of the transcriptome.

A native of Massachusetts, Dr. Chory received a B.A. degree in biology with honors from Oberlin College, OH, a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School. In 1988, she joined the faculty of the Salk Institute, where she has remained. Dr. Chory has served on numerous advisory committees and editorial boards, and is the recipient of several awards. She is a member of the U.S., German, and French National Academies of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. Dr. Chory is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.