Academic Education:

B.S., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Ph.D., Microbiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Appointments:

Cetus Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Genetics, John Innes Institute, Norwich, U.K. (1982-1984)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland (1984-1985)

Faculty, Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts (1985-present)

Biology Undergraduate Advising Group (1990-present)

Molecular Track Advisor, PSM-Biotechnology Degree Program (2004-present)


Research Interests:

My research centered for a number of years on the industrially-important antibiotic-producing bacteria Streptomyces. We investigated genes controlling antibiotic synthesis and morphological development (sporulation) in Streptomyces clavuligerus and Streptomyces coelicolor.

Recently we have moved in a new direction to study marine bacterial viruses. There are estimated to be about 1030 bacteriophages in the earth's oceans, making important contributions to global carbon and nitrogen cycles as well as to bacterial diversity. Yet their biology is poorly understood. We are conducting some of the first studies of marine phage structural assembly, characterizing cyanophage Syn5 that infects the abundant open ocean oxygenic cyanobacterium Synechococcus WH8109.

Teaching Interests:

I teach a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in Microbiology and Molecular Biology, such as General Microbiology for majors, Basic Microbiology for health science students, and Biochemical/Molecular Biology Experimental Approaches, an advanced intensive laboratory course for advanced students.

I frequently teach non-technical courses as well, such as Biology/Biochemistry at Northeastern that seeks to assist our freshmen in adapting to university life, and Biology Capstone that recapitulates the experiential education of students nearing graduation.

Selected Publications:

Raytcheva, D.A., C. Haase-Pettingell, J.M. Piret and J. King. 2011. Intracellular assembly of cyanophage Syn5 proceeds through a scaffold-containing procapsid. Journal of Virology 85: 2406-2415.

Ozcengiz, G., S. Okay, E. Unsaldi, B. Taskin, P. Liras and J. Piret. 2010. Homologous expression of aspartokinase (ask) gene in Streptomyces clavuligerus and its hom-deleted mutant. Effects on cephamycin C production. Bioengineered Bugs 1: 1-7.

Tunca, S, EI Yilmaz, J Piret, P Liras, G Ozcengiz. 2004. Cloning, characterization and heterologous expression of the aspartokinase and aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase genes of the cephamycin C-producer Streptomyces clavuligerus. Research in Microbiology 155: 525-534.

Gao, Q, Piret, JM, Adrio, JL. 2003. Performance of a recombinant strain of Streptomyces lividans for bioconversion of penicillin G to deacetoxycephalosporin G. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 30: 190-194.

Adrio, JL., GA Hintermann, AL Demain and JM Piret. 2002. Construction of hybrid deacetoxycephalosporin synthases (expandases) by in vivo homeologous recombination. Enzyme and Microbial Technology 31: 932-940.

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