Ian Blaby, PhD, DNA Synthesis group lead, DOE Joint Genome Institute
Dr. Blaby joined the JGI in 2019 as the lead of the DNA synthesis platform, where he manages production for approved user projects as well as leading computational and lab-based R&D efforts for synthetic biology and functional genomics. Prior to JGI, he was a group lead at Brookhaven National Laboratory where he focused on functional genomics of phototrophs. Through this and post-doctoral positions at University of Florida and UCLA he has worked with a wide range of eukaryotic algae, archaea and bacteria with a view to developing a deeper understanding of sequence-based gene function.
Education
- B.Sc. (HONS) – University of Wales, Cardiff, Genetics
- Ph.D. – University of Cambridge., Microbial molecular biology
- Post-doctoral positions – University of Florida; University of California, Los Angeles
Awards and Service
- Editorial Board member of Biology
- JGI Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Working Group co-chair
- UCLA Molecular Biology Institute Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence
Selected Publications
- Liu et. al., Bacterial genome editing by coupling Cre-lox and CRISPR-Cas9 systems PloS one 15 11 2020
- Blaby & Cheng, Building a custom high-throughput platform at the Joint Genome Institute for DNA construct design and assembly—present and future challenges Synthetic Biology 5 1 2020
- Nguyen et. al.,ManiNetCluster: a novel manifold learning approach to reveal the functional links between gene networks BMC genomics 20 12 2019
- Anderson et. al., Exploiting algal NADPH oxidase for biophotovoltaic energy Plant biotechnology journal 14 1 22-28 2016
- Blaby et. al., Genome‐wide analysis on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reveals the impact of hydrogen peroxide on protein stress responses and overlap with other stress transcriptomes The Plant Journal 84 5 974-988 2015
- Zones et. al., High-resolution profiling of a synchronized diurnal transcriptome from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reveals continuous cell and metabolic differentiation The Plant Cell 27 10 2743-2769 2015
- Blaby et. al., The Chlamydomonas genome project: a decade on Trends in plant science 19 10 672-680 2014
- Blaby, et. al., Systems-level analysis of nitrogen starvation–induced modifications of carbon metabolism in a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii starchless mutant The Plant Cell 25 11 4305-4323 2013
- Blaby et. al., Experimental evolution of a facultative thermophile from a mesophilic ancestor Applied and environmental microbiology 78 1 144-155 2012