Brett Cavanaugh

Greeted students to the Edwin Ginn Library at the Tufts Fletcher School and assisted with reserving and returning books.

Helped organize data into spreadsheets, make reports to present to company leadership, attend weekly meetings and sales pitches, and assist engineers on current projects.

Mosquitoes are vectors of disease. Almost 725,000 people die each year due to mosquito-borne illnesses, making them one of the deadliest animals on the planet. At this time, half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. To combat this worldwide issue, a biologically generated repellent that deters mosquitoes called AliveSCENT was proposed. Potential mosquito repellent scents, including lavender, limonene, wintergreen, and jasmine, were tested. Lavender oil was shown to be effective at preventing sugar feeding of laboratory-raised mosquitoes. AliveSCENT exploits the native methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway of Escherichia coli in the production of linalool, a key compound in the lavender scent. First, the potential mosquito repellent scent of lavender was tested by placing various concentrations of lavender oil on cotton balls containing a 10% sucrose solution. The number of mosquito feedings after the addition of lavender oil was then recorded. Lavender oil was shown to be effective at reducing the number of mosquito sugar feedings. Next, a plasmid was designed to exploit the native MEP pathway of E. coli to produce linalool, a key compound in the lavender scent. Successfully transformed colonies were evaluated for the presence of lavender scent using a wafting test, and a small discernible difference was observed between the conditions.

Climate change has been an ongoing global crisis and continues to worsen each year. In the last ten years, global temperatures have reached an all-time high. Additionally, burning fossil fuels and the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases have hastened climate change. These emissions include methane, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide, which make up the greatest percentage of greenhouse gases. The most abundant greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂). CO2 has been produced by many factors related directly to humans, including the products of industrial factories and gas-powered vehicles. To combat this issue, AliveFRESH proposes a biological system that absorbs carbon dioxide while simultaneously producing a pleasant scent. Using a natural air freshener, can avoid the negative impacts on human health, including the production of volatile organic compounds. The autotrophic single-celled organism, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, would be engineered to produce geraniol, a monoterpene with a floral scent. C. reinhardtii was selected for this project because it is photosynthetic and uses a native methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway. The light-independent reactions of photosynthesis will absorb carbon dioxide and produce G3P, a precursor to MEP. By utilizing the existing MEP pathway, AliveFRESH will produce isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP), which can convert into geranyl diphosphate (GPP) for subsequent monoterpene production. The final plasmid will include geraniol synthase (GES) and a red fluorescent protein (RFP) gene. With the addition of GES, GPP would convert into geraniol. RFP can be used to determine whether the transformation was successful by placing the culture of transformed algae under ultraviolet light. The AliveFRESH project creates a pleasant fragrance while also consuming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.