About

Steven E. Finkel

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences

Contact Information
E-mail: sfinkel@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 821-1498
Office: RRI 319B

 

Education
B.A. Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 1987
Ph.D. Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 1994
 

Postdoctoral Training
Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 1994-1999  
 

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 2007-  
Member, USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2000-  
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 2000-2007  
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Reseach in Professor Finkel’s laboratory focuses on the long-term survival and evolution of bacteria, including understanding natural systems and applications to electricity production. Among the topics of current study in the laboratory are (1) the mechanisms of survival in many organisms, including population structure at the genetic & genomic level and studies of the GASP (growth advantage in stationary phase) phenotype; (2) the generation of bacterial diversity in different environments, including the roles of error-prone DNA polymerases in generating diversity; (3) the role of DNA-protein interactions in controlling gene expression, organizing the chromosome, and protecting DNA during the stationary phase of the bacterial lifecycle, focusing on the role of the Dps protein, (4) the use of DNA as a nutrient and parallels to natural competence and transformation; and (5) the long-term survival ability of bacteria in electricity-generating microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Model organisms in the laboratory include: Escherichia coli, Shewanella oneidensis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Streptococcus mutans.
 

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center,http://www.usc.edu/dept/gero/ADRC/
Center of Excellence in Genomic Science,http://cegs.cmb.usc.edu/
USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center,http://ccnt.usc.edu
 

Publications

Book Chapter
Finkel, S. E., Zinser, E., Kolter, R. (2000). Long-term survival and evolution in stationary phase. pp. p. 231-238. Bacterial Stress Responses/ASM.
Finkel, S. E., Zinser, E., Gupta, S., Kolter, R. (1998). Life and Death in Stationary Phase. (Vol. 103). pp. 3-16. NATO-ASI Series, Series H: Cell Biology/Springer-Verlag.
 

Journal Article
Kraigsley, A., Finkel, S. E. (2009). Adaptive evolution in single species biofilms. FEMS Microbiology Letters. Vol. 293, pp. 135-140.
Ren, C., Finkel, S. E., Tower, J. (2009). Conditional inhibition of autophagy genes in adult Drosophila impairs immunity without compromising longevity. Exp. Gerontol.. Vol. 44, pp. 228-235.
Biffinger, J., Ribbens, M., Pietron, J., Finkel, S. E., Nealson, K. (2009). Characterization of electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) utilizing a high-throughput voltage-based screening assay. Biotechnol. Bioeng.. Vol. 102, pp. 436-444.
Biffinger, J. C., Ray, R., Little, B. J., Fitzgerald, L. A., Ribbens, M. A., Finkel, S. E., Ringeisen, B. R. (2009). Simultaneous analysis of physiological and electrical output changes in an operating microbial fuel cell with Shewanella oneidensis. Biotechnol. Bioeng.. Vol. PMID: 19189395
Palchevskiy, V., Finkel, S. E. (2009). A role for single-stranded exonucleases in the use of DNA as a nutrient. J. Bacteriol.. Vol. PMID: 19329645
Kumari, A., Minko, I. G., Harbut, B., Finkel, S. E., Goodman, M. F., Lloyd, R. S. (2008). Replication bypass of interstrand crosslink intermediates by Escherichia coli DNA polymerase IV. J. Biol. Chem.. Vol. 283, pp. 27433-27437.
Ren, C., Webster, P., Finkel, S. E., Tower, J. (2007). Increased internal and external bacterial load during Drosophila aging without life span trade-off. Cell Metabolism. Vol. 6, pp. 144-152.
Skvortsov, D., Abdueva, D., Stitzer, M. E., Finkel, S. E., Tavaré, S. (2007). Using expression arrays for copy number detection: an example from E. coli. BMC Bioinformatics. Vol. 8, pp. 203.
Stevens, M. H., Sanchez, M., Lee, J., Finkel, S. E. (2007). Diversification rates increase with population size and resource concentration in an unstructured habitat. Genetics. Vol. 177, pp. 2243-2250.
Pepper, E. D., Farrell, M. J., Finkel, S. E. (2006). Role of penicillin binding protein 1b in competitive stationary phase survival and antibiotic resistance. FEMS Microbiology Letters. Vol. 263, pp. 61-67.
Finkel, S. E. (2006). Long-term survival during stationary phase: Evolution and the GASP phenotype. Nature Reviews Microbiology. Vol. 4, pp. 113-120.
Finkel, S. E., Petrie, A., Erbe, J. (2005). Use of long-term E. coli cultures to study generation of genetic diversity and teach general microbiology laboratory skills. American Biology Teacher. pp. p.87-92.
Nair, S., Finkel, S. E. (2004). Dps protects cells against multiple stresses during stationary phase. Journal of Bacteriology/ASM. Vol. 186, pp. 4192-4198.
Farrell, M. J., Finkel, S. E. (2003). The growth advantage in stationary phase phenotype conferred by rpoS mutations is dependent on pH and nutrient source. Journal of Bacteriology/ASM. Vol. 185, pp. 7044-7052.
Yeiser, B., Pepper, E. D., Goodman, M. F., Finkel, S. E. (2002). SOS-induced DNA polymerases enhance long-term survival and evolutionary fitness. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Vol. 99, pp. 8737-8741.
Finkel, S. E., Kolter, R. (2001). DNA as a nutrient: A novel role for bacterial competence gene homologs. J. Bacteriol.. Vol. 183, pp. 6288-6293.
Finkel, S. E., Kolter, R. (1999). Evolution of microbial diversity during prolonged starvation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Vol. 96, pp. 4023-4027.
 

Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works
Mentor, USC-IML Certificate Program, 2007-2008   
 

Honors and Awards
NIH/NSF Career Development Award, NSF Faculty Early Career Award, 2003-2009  
USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduates, 2007-2008   
Visiting Scholar Award, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Research, 2004-2005  
 

Service to the Profession

Editorships and Editorial Boards
Editorial Board, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008-  
Editor, Biochemical Journal, 2006-  
Section Editor, EcoSal: Escherichia coli and Salmonella Cellular & Molecular Biology, 2003-  
 

Professional Memberships
The Biochemical Society (U.K), 2007-  
American Society for Microbiology, 1987-  
 
 
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