Calvin Henard

Dr. Calvin A. Henard received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado where he studied the role of the nutrient starvation stringent response in Salmonella's ability to co-opt and subvert host immune responses. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Henard was an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral trainee at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas where he evaluated virulence mechanisms of the intracellular protozoan parasite Leishmania. In 2014, Dr. Henard joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Bioenergy Center as a postdoctoral researcher, where he was promoted to a full-time staff researcher in the applied biology group in 2016. At NREL, Dr. Henard used his expertise in molecular microbiology and metabolic engineering to develop algal, yeast, and bacterial biocatalysts for conversion of renewable substrates to biofuels and bioproducts. In 2019, Dr. Henard joined the Department of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at the University of North Texas (UNT). Dr. Henard's lab at UNT leverages advanced molecular and synthetic biology to develop biotechnologies for the conversion of C1 substrates to fuels and chemicals using methanotrophic bacteria.

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Single Carbon (C1) Biocatalysis
  • Genetic tool development
  • Metabolic engineering
  • Protein engineering
  • Recombineering
  • Metabolic flux analysis
  • Fermentation optimization
  • Metabolomics
• Methylotroph physiology and metabolism
• Bacterial transcriptional regulation
• Redox signaling

FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS

Apply to the Graduate Program in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

CURRENT GRANT-FUNDED PROJECTS

• Characterization of the carbon dioxide starvation response in a promising greenhouse gas mitigation biocatalyst. UNT BioDiscovery Institute. PI: Calvin Henard; Co-PI-Rajeev Azad, $30,000
• Development and validation of CRISPR interference genome-wide libraries to enable high-throughput single-carbon biocatalyst optimization. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technology Office via MSI STEM Research and Development Consortium. PI: Calvin Henard, $250,000

MOST SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

1. Henard CA. Insights into methanotroph carbon flux pave the way for methane biocatalysis. Trends Biotechnol. 2023 Mar;41(3):298-300. PubMed PMID: 36710132.
2. Nath S, Henard JM, Henard CA. Optimized Tools and Methods for Methanotroph Genome Editing. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2489:421-434. PubMed PMID: 35524062.
3. CA Henard, C Wu, W Xiong, JM Henard, B Davidheiser-Kroll, FD Orata, MT Guarnieri. (2021) Ribulose-1, 5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (RubisCO) Is Essential for Growth of the Methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus Strain Bath. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 87, No. 18.Fei, Q., Liang, B., Tao, L., Tan, E. C. D., Gonzalez, R., Henard, C., and Guarnieri, M. (2020). Biological valorization of natural gas for the production of lactic acid: techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment. Biochem Eng J, 107500.
4. Henard, C. A., Akberdin, I. R., Kalyuzhnaya, M. G., and Guarnieri, M. T. (2019). Muconic acid production from methane using rationally-engineered methanotrophic biocatalysts. Green Chem.
5. Qian, F., Zhu, C., Knipe, J. M., Ruelas, S., Stolaroff, J. K., DeOtte, J. R., Duoss, E. B., Spadaccini, C. M., Henard, C. A., Guarnieri, M. T., et al. (2019). Direct writing of tunable living inks for bioprocess intensification. Nano Lett. 19, 5829-5835.
6. Tapscott, T., Guarnieri, M. T., and Henard, C. A. (2019). Development of a CRISPR/Cas9 System for Methylococcus capsulatus In Vivo Gene Editing. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 85.
7. Akberdin, I. R., Thompson, M., Hamilton, R., Desai, N., Alexander, D., Henard, C. A., Guarnieri, M. T., and Kalyuzhnaya, M. G. (2018). Methane utilization in Methylomicrobium alcaliphilum 20ZR: a systems approach. Sci. Rep. 8, 2512.
8. Henard, C. A., Smith, H. K., and Guarnieri, M. T. (2017). Phosphoketolase overexpression increases biomass and lipid yield from methane in an obligate methanotrophic biocatalyst. Metab. Eng. 41, 152-158.
9. Henard, C. A., Smith, H., Dowe, N., Kalyuzhnaya, M. G., Pienkos, P. T., and Guarnieri, M. T. (2016). Bioconversion of methane to lactate by an obligate methanotrophic bacterium. Sci. Rep. 6, 21585.

PATENTS

1. Organic acid synthesis from C1 substrates. CA Henard, MT Guarnieri - US Patent 10,889,821, 2021
2. Organic acid synthesis from C1 substrates. CA Henard, MT Guarnieri - US Patent 10,435,693, 2019