Butzin Lab Overview

It's not enough to get a little better, to know a little more each day. We want the answers now; we want the change now. To move forward fast, we do challenging, daring, and transformative research.

• Nicholas C. Butzin (2022)

Recent work 

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The Butzin lab explores microbial systems using an evolutionary perspective with traditional microbiology and synthetic biology approaches. Our goal is to understand the principles behind robustness in both natural and synthetic microbial systems. Robustness describes a system's ability to maintain its functions despite extrinsic and intrinsic fluctuations (including noise). Historically, studies of an organism's evolution have focused on fitness, but what makes an organism fit is difficult to define and often circumstantial and dynamic. However, robustness may be a suitable metric of fitness for natural systems. A macro example of a robust system is the heart; mammals and birds have four-chambered hearts, most reptiles have three-chambered hearts, and fish have two-chambered hearts. Though organisms have different heart types, this system is quite robust, and the “fitness” of the dissimilar heart systems can be studied based on their uses in distinct organisms. My work similarly examines the robustness of systems at the micro-scale. We explore microbial systems using traditional techniques and employ synthetic biology to engineer simple genetic circuits with predictable functionality. Genetic circuits are modeled after electrical circuits. Instead of using wires and switches, it is comprised of DNA, RNA, and proteins that enable individual cells to respond and interact with each other to perform logical functions. This approach reduces the complexity inherent to natural systems that are subject to feedback and strong fluctuations (noise), which makes the quantification of robustness difficult. We aim to identify how individual cells and biological networks cope with constant fluctuations common to natural environments and limited enzymatic resources. 

The necessary quantitative measurements for such investigation at the single-cell level were prohibitively difficult to obtain until fairly recently. Using a combination of microfluidics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics) and time-lapse microscopy, we can now quantify cellular responses to precisely controlled external signals. We have developed innovative techniques in microfluidics to this end, permitting imaging and quantification of live cellular responses and interactions in real time at the single-cell level or as a consortium. The resulting indispensable data from microfluidic experiments have informed in silico models and aided in providing a coherent mathematical understanding of phenomena such as entrainment. This approach continues to offer new insights into the evolutionary process that allows for a more fit organism by exploring the principles of microbial design and collective behaviors. 

In the Butzin lab, we use mathematical and computational approaches along with wet lab experiments to probe and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that generate cellular plasticity and robustness.

Example of Recent Work

Disclaimer: This is website is maintained by Dr. Nicholas C. Butzin. Information presented here does not represent official views or opinions of South Dakota State University or any other association that Dr. Butzin is connected with.