Dr. Jeffrey Barrick

Dr. Barrick is an Associate Professor and the Lorene Morrow Kelley Professor in Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin. He has a B.S. from CalTech, a PhD from Yale University, and a he was a post-doctoral fellow at Michigan State University.

His research: Controlling evolution is key to combating the emergence of drug resistance, preventing the progression of chronic infections and cancers, and maintaining the function of genetically engineered cells. Evolution can also be harnessed for biotechnology and medicine: used to create novel therapeutics and to optimize microbial bioprocessing, for example. My laboratory is interested in developing methods to anticipate and arrest unwanted evolution and in understanding how expanded genetic codes and other engineered genome-wide changes can be used to study and augment the evolutionary potential of microbes. Recently, we have also begun to use synthetic biology tools to engineer bacterial endosymbionts of insects for various applications, including engineering honey bee gut symbionts to protect pollinator health, engineering aphid symbionts to protect crops, and engineering leafhopper symbionts to control biomaterial production.

He will be presenting lectures over these two subjects during Darwin Day 2024 at UT Tyler and TJC:

• Welcome Reception

  • Thursday, 2/15/2024, 5:00 - 5:55pm in Apache Rooms

  • Tyler Junior College, Rogers Student Center, 1411 E. Lake St., Tyler, TX

  • Welcome reception with the speaker

• Darwin Day Public Science Lecture at TJC

  • Thursday, 2/15/2024, 6:00 - 7:00pm in Apache Rooms

  • Tyler Junior College, Rogers Student Center, 1411 E. Lake St., Tyler, TX

  • Corner of Baxter Avenue and Lake Street

  • Topic: "The Long-Term Evolution Experiment: Watching Bacteria Evolve for More Than Three Decades"

• Welcome Reception

  • Friday, 2/16/2024, 5:15 - 5:55pm in UT-Tyler University Theater, Mabry Theatre Lobby

  • Circle Dr, Tyler, TX 75799

  • Please note: This is NOT the Cowan Center. This is the theater in the building near the athletic center.

  • Welcome reception with the speaker

• Darwin Day Public Science Lecture at UT-Tyler

  • Friday, 2/16/2024, 6:00 - 7:00pm in UT-Tyler University Theater

  • Circle Dr, Tyler, TX 75799

  • Please note: This is NOT the Cowan Center. This is the theater in the building near the athletic center.

  • Topic: "How Bacteria Evolve to More Rapidly Evolve: Implications for Medicine and Biotechnology"