Standardized DNA assembly methods
As an undergraduate in the Jef Boeke lab when it was at Johns Hopkins, I did wet-lab molecular biology work on standardized DNA assembly methods for expression of genes (yeast Golden Gate), and entire pathways (VEGAS: Versatile genetic assembly system) in S. cerevisiae.
The use of standardized DNA parts allowed us to combinatorially clone pathways in order to vary the expression of genes in the pathway.
As a proof of concept, I applied combinatorial pathway cloning to the biosynthetic pathways for β-carotene and the bacterial pigment violacein, generating many yeast strains with different colored colonies in a single transformation.
Some of these colorful yeast strains have been used to make “Yeast Art”, in which images are produced by growing carefully placed yeast cells on an agar plate.