Browsing by Author "McClintock, Maria"

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    Smart Meters: Implementation and Use in North St. Paul
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2013) Bhandari, Vivek; Jayaraman, Sathish; McClintock, Maria; Wood, Charlotte
    This project was completed as part of the 2013-2014 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of North St. Paul. The City of North St. Paul is unique in that it operates its own electric utility, in cooperation with Minnesota Municipal Power Agency. The city sought assistance investigating and providing information to residents, businesses, and elected officials about alternative energy and energy conservation initiatives, as well as identifying strategies for dedicating electric utility revenue toward green energy initiatives such as wind, solar, and geothermal. North St. Paul Electric Utility Director Brian Frandle partnered with five teams of students in PA 5271: Energy and Environmental Policy, to investigate such opportunities. A memo, presentation, and poster prepared by student group 2 are available. A video produced by the students is available at https://youtu.be/_9LpRwc1Im4. (Student deliverables from the other four student teams are catalogued separately.).
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    Synthetic Biology Approach to New Sustainable Materials
    (2018-03) McClintock, Maria
    Rapid industrialization and an abundance of cheap petroleum fueled the production and development of a great variety of synthetic polymers in the twentieth century. Over the past 60 years, these materials have become a part of the fabric of modern life. They are pervasive; from the polyurethanes in our cars and furniture, to the polypropylene in a state of the art medical implant, we rely on synthetic polymers every day of our lives, to accomplish tasks both trivial and critical. However, production of these chemicals from petroleum feedstocks is unsustainable and damaging to the environment. One potential option for more sustainable production is to use microbial fermentation to generate industrial chemicals. Microbial fermentation offers the opportunity to produce chemicals from biomass, making the compounds produced renewable feedstocks. Furthermore, the conditions used for, and byproducts produced from, microbial fermentation are benign. However, many microbial monomers face challenges in terms of economic viability and utility. With this in mind, my PhD research has focused on developing engineering systems for production of novel and viable monomers, as well as implementation of biological monomers for material applications. Using metabolic engineering, I have implemented the first heterologous pathway for production of dipicolinic acid, an aromatic di-acid that could be used as a biological replacement for isophthalic acid, a major component of the performance polymers Nomex® and polybenzimidazole, as well as a useful additive in many other polymers. By working with collaborators, I have used ancestral reconstruction to improve the production of anhydromevalonolactone, a monomer that can serve as a sustainable alternative to poly(acrylate). Finally, I have worked to establish a new platform for developing zwitterionic materials. In this project, we were able to engineer E. coli to produce N-acetyl-serine, a compound that can be dehydrated to form an acrylate monomer with a protected amine. I then polymerized this monomer with styrene and developed zwitterionic coatings that show improved resistance to cell adhesion. Overall, my work has contributed to the development of new metabolic pathways and material applications of biologically-derived monomers.