Seth McDonald
Illumina, Inc., USA
Biography
Seth McDonald received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Utah where he studied the structure and biological implications of the interaction of the essential Spn1 and Spt6 transcription factors in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In his Post-doc at Colorado State University, continuing his use of x-ray crystallography and enzyme kinetics, he engineered fast and accurate RNA polymerases from small RNA viruses that effectively restrict viral genome variations within the given population required for infection and survival. At Illumina, he has made significant contributions to the structural and functional understanding of how polymerases incorporate nucleotides modified on the base and sugar. He is the assay development and structural biology lead in the protein engineering group where he continues to contribute to the ongoing enzyme engineering projects within Illumina.
Abstract
Abstract : Improved illumina sequencing by polymerase engineering