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
- Henard CA. Insights into methanotroph carbon flux pave the way for methane biocatalysis.
Trends Biotechnol. 2023 Mar;41(3):298-300. PubMed PMID: 36710132.
- Nath S, Henard JM, Henard CA. Optimized Tools and Methods for Methanotroph Genome
Editing. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2489:421-434. PubMed PMID: 35524062.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Organic acid synthesis from C1 substrates. CA Henard, MT Guarnieri - US Patent 10,889,821,
2021
- Organic acid synthesis from C1 substrates. CA Henard, MT Guarnieri - US Patent 10,435,693,
2019