Tyler M Stack

Tyler Stack has research interests based on using sequence similarity networks to annotate bacterial metabolic enzymes. Identifying and characterizing the chemistry of enzymes can provide annotations for metabolic genes, enzymatic activities for use in biotechnology, and genetic markers for xenobiotic drug metabolism by human gut flora.

His research as an Assistant Professor is focused on discovering new bacterial catabolic pathways and identifying the bacterial genes responsible for the metabolism of drugs in the human gut. Because many drugs are meant to structurally resemble naturally occurring molecules, the enzymes in our diverse gut microbes may chemically change drugs due to the promiscuous activity of metabolic proteins. Tyler's Ph.D. under Prof. Christian Whitman at the Universithy of Texas at Austin provided training on how to characterize the kinetics of enzymes on various substrates. As a postdoctoral research associate under Prof. John Gerlt at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tyler became an expert in sequence similarity networks, a way to analyze large groups of protein sequences to annotate genes of unknown function, where he discovered and characterized new L-ascorbate catabolic pathways. This postdoctoral research has allowed him to find new and exciting chemistry in plant-associated and human gut bacterial metabolism while working with undergraduate researchers in these studies.

As an Assistant Professor, Tyler has mentored 28 undergraduates so far. These students learn to do the significant aspects of the research, work on a personal project, and help by training incoming trainees. This work is structured around studying the activity of enzyme families, in particular, enzymes found in gut microbes that can modify drug therapeutics.

As an instructor, Tyler enjoys exploring new modes of pedagogy beyond the "sage on the stage" model. While teaching General Chemistry courses (both semesters, in lecture and lab, CHM 101/101L and CHM 102/102L), Tyler has explored using specifications grading, where learning objectives are clearly defined and students are grading on meeting specific outcomes, while having multiple attempts to attain them. Tyler also teaches in the Biochemistry sequence: Introduction to Biochemistry (CHM 132), Biochemistry I (CHM 309), Biochemistry II (CHM 312), and Biochemistry Lab (CHM 310L).