BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS

Malcolm. J. Fraser, Jr. Ph.D.

Dr. Fraser received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University, and performed postdoctoral research at both Penn State University and Texas A & M University. At Texas A & M he was a part of the team which developed the genetic expression system which is now a widely used methodology for producing organic molecules, including pharmaceuticals, on an industrial scale.

He is the co-inventor of the gene splicing technology “piggyBac”, as well as the inventor of various piggyBac improvement patents. It was his work on piggyBac which first caught the attention of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories.

He was recently selected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This was awarded in recognition for his distinguished contributions to genetics and transgenesis, and for his discovery of the piggyBac transposable element and derived transgenic vector system.

In 2006, Dr. Fraser was awarded $2.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund "deliverable technologies" in the field of transgenesis, for the prevention of mosquito born disease.

Dr. Fraser is a member of the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he heads the Fraser Laboratory. The focus of his work is molecular genetics. He is the author or co-author of numerous scientific articles in the field of genetic engineering and gene manipulation.

Randy Lewis, Ph.D.

Dr. Lewis received his B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He received his M.S. in chemistry and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Lewis is internationally renowned for his work on spider silk. He is also the named inventor of a number of patents relating to spider silk polymers. He is a member of the faculty at the University of Wyoming, where he heads the Lewis Laboratory within the Department of Molecular Biology. The study of spider silk polymers and their underlying genetics is a major focus of Dr. Lewis's research.

His recent publications include:

(1990) Xu, M. and Lewis, R.V. Structure of a Protein Superfiber: Spider Dragline Silk Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 87, 7120-24.

(1992) Hinman, M.B. and Lewis, R.V. Isolation of a Clone Encoding a Second Dragline Silk Fibroin, Nephila Clavipes Dragline Silk is a Two Protein Fiber J.Biol. Chem 267: 19320-19324.

(1994) Stauffer, S., Cougill, S. and Lewis R.V. Mechanical Properties of Several Spider Silks. J. of Arachnology 22:5-11.

(1996) Lewis, R.V., Hinman, M., Kothakota, S. and Fournier, M. Expression and Purification of a Recombinant Spider Silk Protein: A New Strategy for Producing Repetitive Proteins Protein Expression and Purification 7:400-406.

(1997) Parkhe, A.J., Seeley, S.K., Gardner, K., Thompson L. and Lewis, R.V. Structural Studies of Spider Silk Proteins in the Fiber, J. of Molecular Recognition 10:1-6.

(1997) Liivak, O., Flores , A., Lewis, R.V. and Jelinski, L.W. Conformation of the Polyalanine Repeats in Minor Ampullate Gland Silk of the Spider Nephila clavipes. Macromolecules 30:7127-31.

(1998) Colgin, M and Lewis, R.V. Spider Minor Ampullate Silk Proteins Contain New Repetitive Sequences and Highly Conserved Non-silk-like “Spacer Regions” Protein Science 7:667-672.

(1998) Hayashi, C. and Lewis, R.V. Spider Flagelliform Silk Proteins J. of Mol. Biol. 275:773-784.

(1999) Hayashi, C.Y., Shipley , N.H. and Lewis, R.V., Hypotheses that Correlate the Sequence, Structure, and Mechanical Properties of Spider Silk Proteins. ( International J. of Biological Macromolecules 24:271-275).

(2001) Gatesy, J., Hayashi, C.Y., Motriuk, D., Woods, J. and Lewis, R.V. Extreme Diversity, Conservation, and Convergence of Spider Silk Fibroin Sequences Science 291:2603-05.

(2004) Gregory P. Holland, Randolph V. Lewis, and Jeffrey L.Yarger WISE NMR Characterization of Nanoscale Heterogeneity and Mobility in Supercontracted Nephila clavipes Spider Dragline Silk, J. Am .Chem. Soc. 126: 5867-5872.

(2004) Hayashi CY, Blackledge TA, Lewis RV. Molecular and mechanical characterization of aciniform silk: uniformity of iterated sequence modules in a novel member of the spider silk fibroin gene family. Mol Biol Evol . 21(10):1950-9.

(2004) M Tian, C Liu, and R Lewis, Analysis of Major Ampullate Silk cDNAs from Two Non-Orb-Weaving Spiders. Biomacromolecules 5(3): 657-661.

(2004) Brooks A.E. and Lewis, R.V., "Probing the Elastic Nature of Spider Silk in Pursuit of the Next Designer Fiber" in Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation : Vol. 40, pg: 232 – 237.

(2004) Motriuk-Smith, M. and Lewis, R.V. "Brown Widow (Latrodectus Geometricus) Major Ampullate Silk Protein And Its Material Properties" in Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation : Vol. 40, pg: 64-69.

((2005) Dagmara Motriuk-Smith, Alyson Smith, Cheryl Y. Hayashi, Randolph V. Lewis Analysis of the conserved N-terminal domains in major ampullate spider silk proteins (in press, Biomacromolecules ).

Donald L. Jarvis, Ph.D.

Dr. Jarvis received both his B.S. and M.S. in microbiology at Idaho State University . He received his Ph.D. in Virology at Baylor College of Medicine. After earning his Ph.D. he trained in molecular cloning at Baylor. In 1987 he undertook postdoctoral studies on glycoprotein biosynthesis at Texas A&M. In 1989, Dr. Jarvis moved into an independent position at Texas A&M.

In 1998, Dr. Jarvis accepted a position in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming . He received a professorship in 2000. Dr. Jarvis heads a research laboratory within the University's Department of Molecular Biology which focuses on biochemistry, biosynthesis, and practical genetic engineering applications. He has approximately eighteen patent applications and intellectual property licensing agreements to his credit, including biosynthesis technologies and technologies with potential applications for pharmaceutical production. He is the author or co-author of numerous scientific articles in the fields of biosynthesis, genetic engineering and biochemistry.

Dr. Jarvis's consulting appointments have included:

Novagen Corporation, Madison , WI 1996.

DuPont Agricultural Products, Wilmington , DE 1996-1997.

Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad , CA 1999-2002.

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Belgium , 2005.

His recent publications include:

Jarvis, D.L., Hollister, J.R., and Aumiller, J.A. 2003. Development of novel transgenic insect cell lines that support humanized glycoprotein production by baculovirus expression vectors. BioProcessing J. 2:30-34.

Hollister, J.R., Conradt, H.O., and Jarvis, D.L. 2003. Evidence for a sialic acid salvage pathway in lepidopteran insect cells. Glycobiology 13:487-495.

Jarvis, D.L. 2003. Humanizing recombinant glycoprotein production in the baculovirus-insect cell expression system. Virology 310:1-7.

Tomiya, N., Howe, D., Aumiller, J.J., Pathak, M., Park, J., Palter, K., Jarvis, D.L., Betenbaugh, M.J., and Lee, Y.-C. 2003. Complex-type biantennary N-glycans of recombinant human transferrin from Trichoplusia in insect cells expressing mammalian ß1,4-galactosyltransferase and ß1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II. Glycobiology 13:23-34.

Washburn, J.O., Chan, E.Y., Volkman, L.E., Aumiller, J.J., and Jarvis, D.L. 2003. Early biosynthesis of BV envelope fusion protein gp64 enhances AcMNPV virulence in orally-infected Heliothis virescens . J. Virol. 77:280-290.

van Beek, N., Lu, A., Presnail, J., Davis, D., Greenamoyer, C., Joraski, K., Moore, L., Pierson, M., Herrmann, R., Flexner, L., Foster, J., Van, A., Wong, J., Jarvis, D., Hollingshaus, G., and McCutchen, B. 2003. Effect of signal sequence and promoter on the speed of action of a genetically modified Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus expressing the scorpion toxin LqhIT2. Biological Control, 27:53-64.

Vadaie, N. and Jarvis, D.L. 2004. Molecular cloning of a lepidopteran insect ß1,4N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase with an unusually broad substrate specificity, a functional role in N -glycoprotein biosynthesis, and a potential functional role in glycolipid biosynthesis. J. Biol. Chem. 279:33501-33518.

Zhang, J.-H., Washburn, J.O., Jarvis, D.L. and Volkman, L.E. 2004. AcMNPV early gP64 synthesis mitigates developmental resistance in orally infected noctuid hosts. J. Gen. Virol. 85:833-842.

Wang, Y., Oberly, L.W., Howe, D., Jarvis, D.L., and Murhammer, D.W. 2004. The effect of manganese superoxide dismutase expression in baculovirus infected insect cells. Appl. Biochem. Biotech. 119:181-193.

Kost, T.A., Condreay, J.P., and Jarvis, D.L. 2005. Baculovirus:  versatile vectors for protein expression in insect and mammalian cells. Nature Biotechnology 23:567-575.

Aumiller, J.A., Hollister, J.R., and Jarvis, D.L. 2006. Molecular cloning and functional characterization of ß- N -acetylglucosaminidase genes from Sf9 cells. Prot. Expr. Purif. 47:571-590.

Hill, D.R., Aumiller, J.J., Shi, X., and Jarvis, D.L. 2006. Isolation and characterization of a baculovirus vector that supports recombinant glycoprotein sialylation by SfSWT-1 cells cultured in serum-free medium. Bioengr. Biotechnol., 95:37-47.

Shi, X. and Jarvis, D.L. 2006. A new method for the rapid amplification of cDNA ends of extremely GC-rich genes. Analyt. Biochem. 356:222-228.

Shi, X., Harrison, R.L., Hollister, J.R., Fraser, M.J., and Jarvis, D.L. 2007. Construction and characterization of new piggyBac vectors for constitutive or inducible expression of heterologous gene pairs and the identification of a previously unrecognized activator sequence in piggyBac . BMC Biotechnol. 7:5.

Shi, X. and Jarvis, D.L. 2007. Protein N-glycosylation in the baculovirus-insect cell system. In M.J. Fraser, G.W. Blissard, and J. Vlak (eds.). Current Drug Targets, Bentham Press, London (in press).

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