Brad C. Bennett
Welcome to my research projects website. I run a small lab in the Biology Department at Samford University. My research interests are varied but all have foundations in using molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics to explain physiological processes in bacteria. Click on the Projects link to learn more specifics. An overarching theme of the lab is to understand how probiotics, also known as beneficial bacteria, work.
I teach Foundations of Biology I (BIOL 203), Microbiology lab (BIOL 225), Principles of Bioinformatics (BIOL 306), and mentor research students for their Biology Senior Capstone (BIOL 448). I am also developing a Special Topics course on Food Microbiology and the Human Microbiome.
We are currently "digging" through >130,000 mRNA sequences that putatively compose the transcriptome of the venom gland of Ctenus hibernalis, a ground hunting spider native to Alabama. Whew, that's a lot of sequence! Go BLAST2GO, go!
07/09/2018 update: up to 3700 sequences that have been BLASTed (many more to go!)
07/31/2018 update: nearing 16000 sequences processed, with ~6000 BLAST hits. To paraphrase Roy Schneider, I think we're going to need a bigger computer!
We have recently cloned niap genes into a new plasmid vector, pBAD24, in order to perform growth curve and rescue experiments. NiaP proteins are thought to be the major membrane transporter of niacin (vitamin B3) across all Domains of life. Shown above are successful PCR amplifications of niap genes from 4 different bacterial species using genomic DNA as the template. Now, for the difficult (yet fun) part: the experiments!