Nick Ouzounov

Nick Ouzounov

San Francisco Bay Area
3K followers 500+ connections

Activity

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Experience

  • Geltor Inc. Graphic

    Geltor Inc.

    San Francisco Bay Area

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    Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics

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    Princeton, NJ

Education

  • Princeton University

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    Activities and Societies: Robotics Club - Founder

    High Honors Thesis in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry "Aging & Neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans"

Publications

  • The beauty of biodesign: new frontier for collagen

    personal care magazine

    Discover how biodesign addresses consumer demand for high-quality, eco-conscious ingredients, setting a new standard in skincare and beyond.

    See publication
  • MreB Orientation Correlates with Cell Diameter in Escherichia coli

    Cell: Biophysical Journal

    Bacteria have remarkably robust cell shape control mechanisms. For example, cell diameter only varies by a few percent across a given population. The bacterial actin homolog, MreB, is necessary for establishment and maintenance of rod shape although the detailed properties of MreB that are important for shape control remained unknown. In this study, we perturb MreB in two ways: by treating cells with the polymerization-inhibiting drug A22 and by creating point mutants in mreB. These…

    Bacteria have remarkably robust cell shape control mechanisms. For example, cell diameter only varies by a few percent across a given population. The bacterial actin homolog, MreB, is necessary for establishment and maintenance of rod shape although the detailed properties of MreB that are important for shape control remained unknown. In this study, we perturb MreB in two ways: by treating cells with the polymerization-inhibiting drug A22 and by creating point mutants in mreB. These perturbations modify the steady-state diameter of cells over a wide range, from 790 ± 30 nm to 1700 ± 20 nm. To determine which properties of MreB are important for diameter control, we correlated structural characteristics of fluorescently tagged MreB polymers with cell diameter by simultaneously analyzing three-dimensional images of MreB and cell shape. Our results indicate that the helical pitch angle of MreB inversely correlates with the cell diameter of Escherichia coli. Other correlations between MreB and cell diameter are not found to be significant. These results demonstrate that the physical properties of MreB filaments are important for shape control and support a model in which MreB organizes the cell wall growth machinery to produce a chiral cell wall structure and dictate cell diameter.

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  • De novo morphogenesis in L-forms via geometric control of cell growth.

    Molecular Biology

    In virtually all bacteria, the cell wall is crucial for mechanical integrity and for determining cell shape. Escherichia coli's rod-like shape is maintained via the spatiotemporal patterning of cell-wall synthesis by the actin homologue MreB. Here, we transiently inhibited cell-wall synthesis in E. coli to generate cell-wall-deficient, spherical L-forms, and found that they robustly reverted to a rod-like shape within several generations after inhibition cessation. The chemical composition of…

    In virtually all bacteria, the cell wall is crucial for mechanical integrity and for determining cell shape. Escherichia coli's rod-like shape is maintained via the spatiotemporal patterning of cell-wall synthesis by the actin homologue MreB. Here, we transiently inhibited cell-wall synthesis in E. coli to generate cell-wall-deficient, spherical L-forms, and found that they robustly reverted to a rod-like shape within several generations after inhibition cessation. The chemical composition of the cell wall remained essentially unchanged during this process, as indicated by liquid chromatography. Throughout reversion, MreB localized to inwardly curved regions of the cell, and fluorescent cell wall labelling revealed that MreB targets synthesis to those regions. When exposed to the MreB inhibitor A22, reverting cells regrew a cell wall but failed to recover a rod-like shape. Our results suggest that MreB provides the geometric measure that allows E. coli to actively establish and regulate its morphology.

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  • Rod-like bacterial shape is maintained by feedback between cell curvature and cytoskeletal localization

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

    Cells typically maintain characteristic shapes, but the mechanisms of self-organization for robust morphological maintenance remain unclear in most systems. Precise regulation of rod-like shape in Escherichia coli cells requires the MreB actin-like cytoskeleton, but the mechanism by which MreB maintains rod-like shape is unknown. Here, we use time-lapse and 3D imaging coupled with computational analysis to map the growth, geometry, and cytoskeletal organization of single bacterial cells at…

    Cells typically maintain characteristic shapes, but the mechanisms of self-organization for robust morphological maintenance remain unclear in most systems. Precise regulation of rod-like shape in Escherichia coli cells requires the MreB actin-like cytoskeleton, but the mechanism by which MreB maintains rod-like shape is unknown. Here, we use time-lapse and 3D imaging coupled with computational analysis to map the growth, geometry, and cytoskeletal organization of single bacterial cells at subcellular resolution. Our results demonstrate that feedback between cell geometry and MreB localization maintains rod-like cell shape by targeting cell wall growth to regions of negative cell wall curvature. Pulse-chase labeling indicates that growth is heterogeneous and correlates spatially and temporally with MreB localization, whereas MreB inhibition results in more homogeneous growth, including growth in polar regions previously thought to be inert. Biophysical simulations establish that curvature feedback on the localization of cell wall growth is an effective mechanism for cell straightening and suggest that surface deformations caused by cell wall insertion could direct circumferential motion of MreB. Our work shows that MreB orchestrates persistent, heterogeneous growth at the subcellular scale, enabling robust, uniform growth at the cellular scale without requiring global organization.

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Honors & Awards

  • Tiger Entrepreneur Award

    Princeton University

    The Tiger Entrepreneur Award recognizes exceptional Princeton alumni who have demonstrated innovation, leadership, and impact through entrepreneurial ventures. Awarded in 2018 for co-founding Geltor, this honor highlights the development of our protein design and production technology, reflecting groundbreaking contributions to sustainable biotechnology and entrepreneurship.

  • IndieBio Accelerator Program

    SOSV

    IndieBio is the world's first synthetic biology accelerator. The program provides the capital ($250,000), space (lab and office in San Francisco, CA), and network (scientists, business people, and investors) needed to turn a founding team's vision into a company of lasting value. Geltor is a graduate of IndieBio's second class.

Languages

  • English

    Native or bilingual proficiency

  • Bulgarian

    Native or bilingual proficiency

  • Russian

    Limited working proficiency

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