Prof. Emily Dieter receives in-kind grant for engineered DNA to enhance biochemical research

Gettysburg College’s faculty are teachers and scholars. Their research contributes to knowledge within their disciplines and invites students to explore new academic frontiers through student-faculty research.

In 2024, the Community Science Program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI) awarded Gettysburg College Chemistry Prof. Emily Dieter an in-kind grant to support plasmid research.

Dieter’s research project, “Investigation of Radical S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine (SAM) Enzymes Hypothesized to Be Involved in Methanogenic Archaea Metabolism,” will use synthesized, engineered DNA provided by the JGI. In her research, Dieter will focus on the biological function of radical SAM enzymes specifically found in methanogens, which produce the greenhouse gas methane. Her research will offer a better understanding of methanogens, which are often hard to study due to their extreme habitats.

With the support of this grant, she hopes to have students working with her on this cutting-edge research during the summer of 2025 through Gettysburg’s Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute (X-SIG).

“Radical SAM enzymes are one of the largest enzyme classes discovered so far, so the community working on these enzymes is large and varied,” she said. “It’s exciting that Gettysburg will get to contribute as well.”

Learn more about Dieter’s work in biochemical research at Gettysburg.

What is the goal of your research?

“In this project, we will investigate methanogenic radical SAM enzymes by expressing the enzymes in Escherichia coli (E. coli), organisms that are more amenable to growth in a laboratory environment. Enzymes will be purified from E. coli, then functionally characterized outside the organism. By understanding how these enzymes function biochemically, we hope to provide valuable insight into fundamental biological processes in methanogens, which could help mitigate methane production or harness the methane-producing ability of methanogens for biofuel production.

“The JGI is a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, which has a stated interest in understanding the biological processes of microbes that impact the environment. The JGI will provide plasmids that will allow us to produce methanogen radical SAM enzymes in E. coli, allowing us to biochemically characterize these proteins.” 

How will you apply the plasmids you’ll receive through the in-kind grant to your research?

“To produce the radical SAM enzymes in E. coli, we need a way to tell the E. coli to produce these proteins, which are originally from a different organism. We do this with a plasmid, a small circular piece of DNA. The JGI will engineer this plasmid to contain the gene for our protein of interest, in addition to genetic information that tells the E. coli to produce the protein.

“When I explain plasmids to my students, I draw a comparison to a spy going undercover. It has the genetic information for the protein we want to express from one organism, but otherwise, it looks like DNA from the native organism, in this case, E. coli. In this way, the E. coli ‘sees the plasmid similarly to its own DNA, which is why it accepts the plasmid, rather than rejecting it, but produces the protein we want. We will get approximately 300 different plasmids, which will allow us to screen for targets suitable for use in E. coli.” 

What excites you the most about teaching and working with students on this research at Gettysburg? 

“I love the hands-on aspect of teaching and working at Gettysburg. I love being able to work in the lab and share my excitement with my students. I love watching when things finally ‘click’ for a student, whether that is in class while we are covering a new topic or in the lab when their experiment finally worked.

“Gettysburg has great students. They’re curious, hard-working, and driven, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time working with them so far.”

Discover how faculty members like Chemistry Prof. Emily Dieter inspire their students’ academic explorations at Gettysburg College.

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By Michael Vyskocil
Photo by Abbey Frisco
Posted: 01/22/25

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