Alberto Rodriguez

Biography

Rodriguez is interested in the biological valorization of lignocellulosic biomass with an emphasis on the production of biofuels and bioproducts using metabolically-engineered microorganisms.

Education

BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (UAEM, Mexico)

MSc in Biochemical Sciences (UNAM, Mexico)

PhD in Biochemical Sciences (UNAM, Mexico)

Research Interests

Rodriguez specializes in microbial biotechnology and currently works on developing strategies to improve the deconstruction and conversion of renewable feedstocks to biofuels and bioproducts using microbial communities and engineered microorganisms.

Selected Publications

• Yao A, Choudhary H, Mohan M, Rodriguez A, Magurudeniya H, Pelton JG, George A, Simmons BA, Gladden JM: Can multiple ions in an ionic liquid improve the biomass pretreatment efficacy? ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering 2021. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c09330.
• Das L, Geiselman GM, Rodriguez A, Magurudeniya HD, Kirby J, Simmons BA, Gladden JM: Seawater-based one-pot ionic liquid pretreatment of sorghum for jet fuel production. Bioresource Technology Reports 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.biteb.2020.100622.
• Geiselman GM, Kirby J, Landera A, Otoupal P, Papa G, Barcelos C, Sundstrom ER, Das L, Magurudeniya HD, Wehrs M, Rodriguez A, Simmons BA, Magnuson JK, Mukhopadhyay A, Lee TK, George A, Gladden J: Conversion of poplar biomass into high-energy density tricyclic sesquiterpene jet fuel blendstocks. Microbial Cell Factories 2020. DOI: 10.1186/s12934-020-01456-4.
• Hodgson-Kratky K, Papa G, Rodriguez A, Stavila V, Simmons BA, Botha F, Furtado A, Henry R: Relationship between sugarcane culm and leaf biomass composition and enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2019. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1588-3.
• Rigual V, Papa G, Rodriguez A, Wehrs M, Kim KH, Oliet M, Alonso MV, Gladden J, Mukhopadhyay A, Simmons BA, Singh S: Protic ionic liquid enabled one-pot pretreatment, saccharification and microbial cultivation using recalcitrant woody biomass. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2019. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b04451.
• Perez-Pimienta JA, Papa G, Rodriguez A, Barcelos CA, Stavila V, Sanchez A, Gladden JM, Simmons BA: Pilot-scale hydrothermal pretreatment and optimized saccharification enables bisabolene production from multiple feedstocks. Green Chemistry 2019. DOI: 10.1039/C9GC00323A.
• Rodriguez A, Ersig N, Geiselman GM, Seibel K, Simmons BA, Magnuson JK, Eudes A, Gladden JM: Conversion of depolymerized sugars and aromatics from engineered feedstocks by two oleaginous red yeasts. Bioresource Technology 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121365.
• Sasaki Y, Eng T, Herbert RA, Trinh J, Chen Y, Rodriguez A, Gladden J, Simmons BA, Petzold CJ, Mukhopadhyay A: Engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce the biogasoline isopentenol from plant biomass hydrolysates. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2019. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1381-3.
• Martinez JA, Rodriguez A, Moreno F, Flores N, Lara AR, Ramirez OT, Gosset G, Bolivar F: Metabolic modeling and response surface analysis of an Escherichia coli strain engineered for shikimic acid production. BMC Systems Biology 2018. DOI: 10.1186/s12918-018-0632-4.
• Sundstrom E, Yaegashi J, Yan J, Masson F, Papa G, Rodriguez A, Mirisiaghi M, Liang L, He Q, Tanjore D, Pray T, Singh S, Simmons B, Sun N, Magnuson J, Gladden J: Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels. Green Chemistry 2018. DOI: 10.1039/C8GC00518D.
• Yaegashi J, Kirby J, Ito M, Sun J, Dutta T, Mirisiaghi M, Sundstrom E, Rodriguez A, Baidoo E, Tanjore D, Pray T, Sale K, Singh S, Keasling JD, Simmons BA, Singer SW, Magnuson JK, Arkin AP, Skerker J, Gladden JM: Rhodosporidium toruloides: a new platform organism for conversion of lignocellulose into terpene biofuels and bioproducts. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2017. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-017-0927-5.
• Rodriguez A, Salvachúa D, Katahira R, Black BA, Cleveland NS, Reed M, Smith H, Baidoo EEK, Keasling JD, Simmons BA, Beckham GT, Gladden JM: Base-catalyzed depolymerization of solid lignin-rich streams enables microbial conversion. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2017. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b01818.
• Rodriguez A, Martínez, JA, Millard P, Gosset G, Portais JC, Létisse F, Bolivar F: Plasmid‐encoded biosynthetic genes alleviate metabolic disadvantages while increasing glucose conversion to shikimate in an engineered Escherichia coli strain. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 2017. DOI: 10.1002/bit.26264.
• Rodriguez A, Martínez JA, Flores N, Escalante A, Gosset G, Bolivar F: Engineering Escherichia coli to overproduce aromatic amino acids and derived compounds. Microbial Cell Factories 2014. DOI: 10.1186/s12934-014-0126-z.
• Rodriguez A, Martínez JA, Báez-Viveros JL, Flores N, Hernández-Chávez G, Ramírez OT, Gosset G, Bolivar F: Constitutive expression of selected genes from the pentose phosphate and aromatic pathways increases the shikimic acid yield in high-glucose batch cultures of an Escherichia coli strain lacking PTS and pykF. Microbial Cell Factories 2013. DOI: 10.1186/1475-2859-12-86.
• Centeno-Leija S, Utrilla J, Flores N, Rodriguez A, Gosset G, Martinez A: Metabolic and transcriptional response of Escherichia coli with a NADP+-dependent glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase from Streptococcus mutans. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 2013. DOI: 10.1007/s10482-013-0010-6.