Rate My Professor Elizabeth Skovran

The lab engineers bacterial pathways for enhanced lanthanide transport, cofactor enzymes, regulatory systems, metal homeostasis, and cross-regulation, alongside increasing production of biodegradable plastics like polyhydroxybutyrate. Collaborating with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Skovran's team filed a provisional patent for rare earth recovery from electronic waste. She has received the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology award four times, supporting student researchers who have presented at conferences including the West Coast Bacterial Physiology meeting. By 2018, she published 18 peer-reviewed articles; notable works include "Scalable and Consolidated Microbial Platform for Rare Earth Element Leaching and Recovery from Waste Sources" (2023), "Scalable bio-platform to recover critical metals from complex waste sources" (2023), "Gene products and processes contributing to lanthanide homeostasis and methanol metabolism in Methylorubrum extorquens AM1" (2020), "Lanthanides in Methylotrophy" (2019), "Lanthanide-Dependent Regulation of Methanol Oxidation Systems in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 and Their Contribution to Methanol Growth" (2016), and "XoxF Is Required for Expression of Methanol Dehydrogenase in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1" (2011). Her contributions advance sustainable recycling and train students in genetics, biochemistry, and metabolic engineering.