There are two components to my research and creative activity: the applied biotech research and basic research. I own and operate Environmental Proteomics NB Inc, a small biotech spin-off company that develops immunodiagnostic tools for studying problems of environmental science. A particular concentration of the company is in the development and application of antibodies and companion quantitation standards for the analysis of photosynthetic complexes of cyanobacteria, green algae and plants. Using novel bioinformatic approaches, we are able to generate "Global Antibodies" that recognize proteins from a wide range of taxa with equal specificity and isoform specific antibodies that can distinguish between different members of a protein family. With the addition of calibrated protein standards these tools can be used to measure resource allocations and to quantitate changes in response to environmental conditions.
In the basic research component I apply molecular biological methods to study the effects of environmental conditions on the adaptations of photosynthetic organisms at the molecular level. I analyze gene expression at the level of both RNA and protein. Using RT-RT-Q-PCR I examine the expression of genes in response to environmental conditions. Using quantitative immunoblotting I look at the levels of specific proteins, and their responses to changing conditions. I also use the techniques of cloning and overexpression to look at the function of gene products in these photosynthetic organisms.
Recent
Publications
Loebl M, Cockshutt AM, Campbell DA, Finkel ZV (2010) Physiological basis for high resistance to photoinhibition under nitrogen depletion in Emiliania huxleyi. Limnology and Oceanography. 55:2150-2160.
Garczarek L, Dufresne A, Blot N, Cockshutt AM, Peyrat A, Campbell DA, Joubin L, Six C. (2008) Function and evolution of the psbA gene family in marine Synechococcus: Synechococcus sp. WH7803 as a case study. Accepted for publication in ISME Journal, 1-17.
Brown CM, MacKinnon JD, Cockshutt AM, Villareal T, Campbell DA (2008) Flux capacities and acclimation costs in Trichodesmium from the Gulf of Mexico. Marine Biology, 154, 413-422.
Wilkie, M.P., Claude, J.F., Cockshutt, A.M., Holmes, J.A., Wang, Y.S., Youson, J.H. & Walsh, P.J. (2006) Shifting Patterns of Nitrogen Excretion and Amino Acid Catabolism Capacity During the Life Cycle of the Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 79, 885-898.
Rendell, J.L., Fowler, S., Cockshutt, A. and Currie, S. 2006. Development-dependent differences in intracellular localization of stress proteins (hsps) in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, following heat shock. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. Part D 1: 238-252.
Sicora, C.I., Appleton, S.E., Brown, C.M., Chung, J., Chandler, J., Cockshutt, A.M., Vass, I. & Campbell, D.A. (2006) Cyanobacterial psbA families in Anabaena and Synechocystis encode trace, constitutive and UVB-induced D1 isoforms Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics Volume 1757: 47-56.
Ryan-Keough TJ, Macey AI, Cockshutt AM, Moore CM & Bibby TS (2011) The cyanobacterial chlorophyll-binding protein IsiA acts to increase the in vivo effective absorption cross-section of photosystem I under iron limitation. Accepted with minor revisions to Journal of Phycology 24.03.11
Wu H, Cockshutt AM, McCarthy A & Campbell DA (2011) Distinctive PSII photoinactivation and protein dynamics in centric diatoms. Accepted with minor revisions to Plant Physiology 19.05.11