Mary Dunlop

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Boston University, Boston, USA


I’m Caroline Blassick, I am a PhD candidate in Mary Dunlop’s lab at Boston University.
We use a variety of optogenetic systems in E. coli to enact control at the transcriptional or translational level.
We use light to regulate natural or synthetic pathways in E. coli to A) study their resistance to antibiotics, B) control different enzymes for metabolic engineering, or C) investigate gene network dynamics.
Before working with the optoWELL, we were using a number of different options. We had simple LEDs hooked up to an Arduino and were also using the LPA (Light plate apparatus). We still use these devices depending on our experimental requirements.
We love using the optoWELL to characterize new optogenetic systems as we can easily change the light intensity and dynamics to suit our experimental needs. As we can also have individual control of 3 wavelengths in each well, it also helps us to perform multichromatic control by combining multiple optogenetic systems into one cell, or to test if our light systems can be cross-activated by other wavelengths.