Matthew Waugh, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, Wa, Us

Vancouver, Washington, United States

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

Studying metalloprotein design and engineering and laboratory management with Prof. Yi Lu. Working as a part of a DOE funded Bioenergy Research Center, the Center for Advanced Biofuels and Bioprocess Innovation (CABBI).• Computationally designed protein scaffolds using Rosetta Modelling software• Extensive experience with cloning and E. coli strain engineering• Expressed and purified 5+ different, engineered protein scaffolds including 4 with metallocenters and 1 with a heteronuclear metallocluster. Each scaffold represents multiple mutants. • Incorporated unnatural amino acids using amber codon suppression• Developed LCMS/MS pipeline for analytical product characterization• Collaborated with many research groups in interdisciplinary, highly integrated research programs towards the unified goal of using plants as factories to convert biomass into high value products• Initiated two new research directions for the Lu group in CABBI

Ann Arbor, Mi

Mechanistic Characterization of Cyanobacterial Aldehyde Deformylating Oxygenase (cADO); a Biofuel Producing Enzyme

Ann Arbor, Mi

Graduate Research Assistant, Marsh Lab Mechanistic Characterization of Cyanobacterial Aldehyde Deformylating Oxygenase (cADO); a Biofuel Producing Enzyme ● Explored cyanobacterial genomes in subtractive bioinformatics screen for cofactors to improve production of drop-in biofuels, isolated cyanobacterial ferredoxin cofactor for activity assays● Engineered site-directed mutants for structure activity relationship study of substrate binding channel● Synthesized mechanistic probes to investigate radical mechanism and substrate binding affinity● Developed novel solvent isotope effect competition experiment to investigate proton transfer as potential rate determining step resulting in publication (Waugh 2014)● Initiated collaboration with materials chemistry lab to explore electrochemical properties of cADO including reduction potential and electron transfer as rate determiningRotation Project, Sherman Lab ● Developed model system for DNA binding domain mediated protein scaffolding for engineering non-native polyketide synthase (PKS) systemsRotation Project, Kopelman Lab ● Established proof of concept for use of Coomassie blue linked polyacrylamide nanoparticles in photothermal cancer therapy

Charlottesville, Virginia Area

● Optimized a novel class of amidine-based inhibitors of Sphingosine Kinases 1 and 2 for anti-cancer study resulting in a sub-100 nM KI inhibitor, the lowest KI observed at that point

Charlottesville, Virginia Area

● Redesigned an undergraduate organic chemistry experiment using the principles of green chemistry to reduce the environmental footprint● Developed one of only two experiments incorporated into the curriculum

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Chemical Biology

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Biochemistry

Activities and Societies: Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team, Swing Dancing Club, Ballroom Dancing Club, Argentine Tango Dancing