Jacqueline V. Shanks
Professor
3031 Sweeney Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2230
Phone (515)294-4828
Fax (515)294-2689
jshanks
iastate.edu
Education
B. S., ChE, Iowa State University, 1983
Ph.D., ChE, California Institute of Technology, 1989
Honors and Awards
ISU Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Research, 2005
Van Lanen Award, BIOT Division, ACS, 2004
Fellow, American Institute of Medical & Biological
Engineering, 2000
Professional Progress in Engineering Award, ISU, 1994
NSF Young Investigator Award, 1992-1997
Herschel Rich Invention Award, 1992
Teaching/Office Hours Schedule
Web CT
Research Interests
Biochemical engineering, plant metabolic engineering, NMR-based flux analysis, phytoremediation.
Professional Memberships
American Chemical Society
American Institute of Chemical Engineers
American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
Omega Chi Epsilon
Sigma Xi
Society for In Vitro Biology
Society of Women Engineers
Tau Beta Pi
Other Information
Editorial Advisory Board, Biotechnology Progress, 2000-present
Scientific Advisory Committee, Metabolic Engineering VI Conference, 2005-2006
Chair-Elect, Chair, Past-Chair Biotechnology Division of ACS, 2000-2002
Section Editor, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 2000
Newsletter Editor, Biotechnology Division of ACS, 1998-2000
National Research Council, Committee on Biobased Industrial Products, 1994-1999
Research Projects
My current research interests are in the areas of plant metabolic engineering, analytical tools for measuring fluxes and concentrations in metabolic pathways, and phytoremediation. All projects in my laboratory are in collaboration with plant scientists and biological engineers in a portfolio of metabolic engineering applications: overproduction of valuable plant natural products in hairy roots, protein and oil production in soybean embryos, remediation of energetic materials by plants, and utilization of five and six carbon sugars by E. coli. My laboratory focuses on the metabolic characterization of the biological system in the ME application and uses several techniques to analyze plant metabolites, nutrients and fluxes. These include novel in situ 13C NMR techniques to monitor primary carbon metabolism, HPLC and LC/MSn to measure secondary metabolites, and 14C to track the fate of very low levels of metabolites.
Phytochemical Engineering
The powerful anticancer agents vinblastine and vincristine are obtained commercially from the intact plants of the periwinkle Catharanthus roseus. The low yield of these valuable indole alkaloids in plants has been the major motivation to produce them by cell and tissue cultures. We are interested in the metabolic engineering of the terpenoid indole alkaloid pathways for the overproduction of valuable alkaloids transgenic C. roseus "hairy root" cultures. Flux of carbon into the alkaloid pathways, diversion of flux at intermediate branches, and lack of final conversion at the end of a specific branch all appear to affect alkaloid production. Precise genetic modification of the pathways and subsequent metabolic analysis of fluxes are enabling the identification of bottlenecks in the "working model" of the pathways. By identifying points of flux limitation, pathway steps then can be pursued for genetic modification in a reiterative process, or if the genes have not been cloned, further studies can be targeted to obtain the unknown information.
Metabolic Flux Maps in Plants
Metabolic flux analysis quantifies the rate of carbon flow for each metabolic reaction in a biochemical pathway model. The approach requires formulation of balanced equations around each metabolite in the network. These metabolite balances are complemented with extracellular measurements of substrate consumption, secretion of metabolites, biomass composition and intracellular measurements such as 13C labeling data detected using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy or mass spectroscopy (MS). Application of 13C labeling-based metabolic flux analysis towards understanding plant physiology has been limited due to the mathematical burden associated with solving a complex model that accounts for comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the NMR data in addition to cellular compartmentation. We have developed a comprehensive generic mathematical tool (NMR2Flux) for metabolic flux analysis that provides network topology information and quantitatively determine fluxes in different cellular compartments. We have applied the metabolic flux map tool in a variety of systems, including soybean embryos, C. roseus hairy roots, and E. coli.
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that uses plants to uptake, transform, and/or store xenobiotics. Phytoremediation may be superior to bioremediation for some xenobiotics, including the energetic materials such as TNT, DNTs and RDX, compounds of focus in my laboratory. While demonstration of xenobiotic transformation activity by bacteria under laboratory and "field" conditions has made bioremediation an acceptable technology to regulators and practitioners, phytoremediation requires further development to reach its potential and to gain acceptance. In particular, we are using a genetic and biochemical approach in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, to elucidate genes and pathways important in plant transformation of energetic materials.
Selected Publications
Sriram, G., Fulton, D. B., Iyer, V. V., Peterson, J. M., Zhou, R., Westgate, M. E., Spalding, M. H., and Shanks, J. V., “Quantification of Compartmented Metabolic Fluxes in Developing Soybean (Glycine max) Embryos by Employing Biosynthetically Directed Fractional 13C Labeling, 2-D [13C, 1H] NMR and Comprehensive Isotopomer Balancing,” Plant Physiol., 136, 3043-3057 (2004).
Sriram, G. and Shanks, J. V., “Improvements in Metabolic Flux Analysis using Carbon Bond Labeling Experiments: Bondomer Balancing and Boolean Function Mapping,” Metabol. Eng., 6, 116-132 (2004).
Hughes, E., Hong, S.-B., Shanks, J. V., San, K.-Y., and Gibson, S. I., “Expression of a Feedback-Resistant Anthranilate Synthase in Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots Provides Evidence for Tight Regulation of Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Levels,” Biotechnol. Bioeng., 86, 718-727 (2004).
Hughes, E. H., Hong, S.-B., Gibson, S. I., Shanks, J. V., and San, K.-Y., “Metabolic Engineering of the Indole Pathway in Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots and Increased Accumulation of Tryptamine and Serpentine,” Metabolic Engineering, 6, 268-276 (2004).
Shanks, J. V., “Phytochemical Engineering: Combining Chemical Reaction Engineering with Plant Science,” AIChE Journal, 51, 2-7, (2005).
Yoon, J. M., Oliver, D. J. and Shanks, J. V., “Plant Transformation Pathways of Energetic Materials (RDX, TNT, DNTs). Pages 103-116 in Agricultural Biotechnology: Beyond Food and Energy to Health and the Environment, National Agricultural Biotechnology Council Report 17, A. Eaglesham, R. Bessin, R. Trigiano, R. W. T. Hardy, Eds. National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, Ithaca, New York, 2005.
Hong, S.-B., Peebles, C., Shanks, J. V., San, K.-Y., and Gibson, S. I., “Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Production by Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots Induced by Agrobacterium tumefaciens Harboring rol ABC Genes,” Biotech. Bioeng., 93, 386-390, (2005).
Peebles, C., Hong, S.-B., Gibson, S. I., Shanks, J. V., and San, K.-Y., “The Transient Effects of Over-expressing Anthranilate Synthase α and β subunits in Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots,” Biotech. Progress, 21, 1572-1576, (2005).
Peebles, C., Hong, S.-B., Gibson, S. I., Shanks, J. V., and San, K.-Y., “Effects of Terpenoid Precursor Feeding on Catharanthus roseus Hairy Roots Over-expressing the alpha or the alpha and beta Subunits of Anthranilate Synthase,” Biotech. Bioeng., 93, 534-540, (2006).
Glatz, C. E., Gonzalez, R., Huba, M., Mallapragada, S. K., Narasimhan, B., Reilly, P. J., Saunders, K., and Shanks, J. V., "Problem-Based Learning Biotechnology Courses in Chemical Engineering," Biotechnology Progress, 22, 173-178 (2006).
Subramanian, M., Oliver, D. J. and Shanks, J. V., “TNT Phytotransformation Pathway Characteristics in Arabidopsis: Role of Aromatic Hydroxylamines,” Biotech. Progress, 22, 208-216, (2006).
