DGRP Alum Dr. Austin Gluth Lands Post-Doc at J. Craig Venter Institute
Dr. Austin Gluth’s love of science began in high school. That early love took him from a small town outside of Madison, Wisconsin to the University of Wisconsin to begin his educational journey that would eventually lead to a Ph.D. in Biological And Agricultural Engineering from Washington State University (WSU). Austin was an exemplary student in the WSU-Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
(PNNL) Distinguished Graduate Research Program (DGRP)’s 5th cohort. He recently received a post-doctoral position at the prestigious J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in La Jolla, California.
Austin speaks passionately about the impact of organic chemistry and biochemistry throughout his high school and undergraduate studies.
“Organic chemistry drew me so much closer to thinking about reactions that govern life and how we can engineer them for our progress,” he said.
Austin credits his time in the DGRP, which afforded him the opportunity to build a multi-institutional collaborative community during his Ph.D. studies.
“DGRP allowed me to learn about and employ advanced approaches like proteomics for simultaneously studying thousands of proteins in yeast and bacteria through the rapidly progressing area of laboratory automation,” said Austin “As a result, I grew not only as a molecular/microbiologist, but also as an analytical biochemist, bioinformatician, and bioprocess engineer.”
Excited about the opportunity to continue his research at JCVI, Austin said, “Synthetic biology will play a substantial role in addressing our nation’s resource needs. I will continue researching the fundamental mechanisms that control the chemistries of life.”
Austin hopes the scientific impact of his research will help design and control fungi and bacteria for converting wastes like plastics to valuable products.
“Austin has displayed remarkable skills in science and engineering,” said Bin Yang, a professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Austin’s academic advisor. “He will continue to grow and make significant contributions to the field of biotechnology for fuels and chemicals production.”
Austin Gluth joined Professor Bin Yang’s lab in Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory (BSEL) at WSU-TC in August 2020. Over the past 4.5 years, with his co-advisor and PNNL laboratory fellow Dr. Wei-Jun Qian, he has been working on his thesis titled “Advancing Proteomics Approaches to Study Stress Response and Metabolism in Oleaginous Basidiomycete Yeasts.”
Dr. Qian states, “Austin presents a rare combination of passion, deep scientific insight, creativity, and a remarkable ability to quickly learn new skills. I do believe that he has a bright future ahead in his scientific pursuits.”
The DGRP is a partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a Department of Energy (DOE) National laboratory. Students in the program typically spend the first two years of their Ph.D. program at WSU and the third and fourth years at PNNL being mentored by both a WSU and PNNL advisor. For more information about this exciting program, please visit https://natlab.wsu.edu/dgrp/, or email DGRP@wsu.edu.