Research /Process Chemical Engineer - Chemical Engineering ...

John Larsen
150 Academy St., Newark, DE 19716
Phone: (608)213-2496, Email: Jdlarsen@udel.edu
Career Interests
Actively looking for a position in the biotechnology sector in order to aid in the discovery and development of
biologically active molecules and the requisite bioassays to test their efficacy for the treatment of disease
Education
University of Delaware, Newark, DE (2007-Present) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (2003-07)
PhD Candidate, Chemical Engineering B.S. in Chemical Engineering, B.S. in Chemistry
Advisor: Prof. Millicent Sullivan Advisor: Prof. James Weisshaar
Cumulative GPA: 3.96/4.00 Cumulative GPA: 3.46/4.00
Awards, Honors, and Memberships
National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship (2007-2008)
Robert L. Pigford Fellowship, University of Delaware (2007)
Department of Chemical Engineering Scholarship, University of Wisconsin (2006-2007)
American Insitute of Chemical Engineers
Research Experience
University of Delaware, Department of Chemical Engineering, Newark, DE (2007-Present)
“Development and Characterization of a Self-Unpackaging/Histone-Mimetic Gene Delivery System”
Advisors: Prof. Millicent Sullivan
• Determining delay times until protein production through systems biology and reaction network analysis
• Characterizing the physical structure of the delivery vector using light scattering and microscopy
• Developing bioassays to understand cellular trafficking patterns of delivery vehicles for transfection
• Analyzing the biological efficacy of delivery vector through quantitative fluorescence microscopy
University of Wisconsin, Department of Chemistry, Madison, WI (2005-2007)
“Investigating the Effects of Crowding and Confinement on the Diffusion of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in E. coli in
vivo”
Advisor: Prof. James Weisshaar
• Investigated the effects of osmotic shifts on the diffusion coefficient of GFP in E. coli, acknowledgement in
Konopka, et al., J. Bacteriol., Vol. 188 (2006), 17, 6115-6123
• Characterized the flow profile of a perfusion system in order to analyze the response time of E. coli to changes in
the osmotic pressure
• Created a protocol for single cell studies to eliminate cell-to-cell variability in the measurements
Publications
Larsen, J.L., Reilly, M.J., Sullivan, M.O., Using the Epigenetic Code to Promote the Unpackaging and Transcriptional
Activation of DNA Polyplexes for Gene Delivery (In Preparation)
Larsen, J.L., Sullivan, M.O., Requirements for DNA Particle Entry into the Nucleus During Cell Division (In Preparation)