UMass Sesquicentennial

Kelly Nevin

Research Associate Professor

Photo of Kelly Nevin
Phone:

413-577-3103

Fax: 

413-545-2115

Email: 
knevin@microbio.umass.edu
Office: 

106 Morrill Science Center IVN

Ph.D.: 

Microbiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2002

Lab Group Home Page
Mailing address: 

Kelly P. Nevin, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology
203 Morrill Science Center IVN
University of Massachusetts
639 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003-9298

Research Interests

The transfer of electrons to current harvesting electrodes by the Geobacter sulfurreducens is the primary focus of my research. Determining the electron transport chain to outside the cell during electricity production will allow for the optimization of the process and better fuel cell performance. We are currently exploring biofilm structure and conductivity, analysis of mutants in electron transport proteins, testing of electrode materials and fuel cell design. The tools currently being used to explore these questions include microarrays, proteomics, confocal laser scanning microscopy, electrochemical, protein and metabolite analyses.

Selected Publications

Rotaru A-E, Shrestha PM, Liu F, Ueki T, Nevin K, Summers ZM, Lovley DR.  2012.  Interspecies electron transfer via H2 and formate rather than direct electrical connections in co-cultures of Pelobacter carbinolicus and Geobacter sulfurreducens.. Appl Environ Microbiol.
Malvankar NS, Lau J, Nevin KP, Franks AE, Tuominen MT, Lovley DR.  2012.  Electrical conductivity in a mixed-species biofilm.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 78(16):5967-71.
Rotaru C, Woodard TL, Choi S, Nevin KP.  2012.  Spatial heterogeneity of bacterial communities in sediments from an infiltration basin receiving highway runoff.. Microb Ecol. 64(2):461-73.
Malvankar NS, Vargas M, Nevin KP, Franks AE, Leang C, Kim B-C, Inoue K, Mester T, Covalla SF, Johnson JP et al..  2011.  Tunable metallic-like conductivity in microbial nanowire networks.. Nat Nanotechnol. 6(9):573-9.
Nevin KP, Hensley SA, Franks AE, Summers ZM, Ou J, Woodard TL, Snoeyenbos-West OL, Lovley DR.  2011.  Electrosynthesis of organic compounds from carbon dioxide is catalyzed by a diversity of acetogenic microorganisms.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 77(9):2882-6.
Lovley DR, Nevin KP.  2011.  A shift in the current: new applications and concepts for microbe-electrode electron exchange.. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 22(3):441-8.
Tremblay P-L, Summers ZM, Glaven RH, Nevin KP, Zengler K, Barrett CL, Qiu Y, Palsson BO, Lovley DR.  2011.  A c-type cytochrome and a transcriptional regulator responsible for enhanced extracellular electron transfer in Geobacter sulfurreducens revealed by adaptive evolution.. Environ Microbiol. 13(1):13-23.
Strycharz SM, Glaven RH, Coppi MV, Gannon SM, Perpetua LA, Liu A, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2011.  Gene expression and deletion analysis of mechanisms for electron transfer from electrodes to Geobacter sulfurreducens.. Bioelectrochemistry. 80(2):142-50.
Lovley DR, Ueki T, Zhang T, Malvankar NS, Shrestha PM, Flanagan KA, Aklujkar M, Butler JE, Giloteaux L, Rotaru A-E et al..  2011.  Geobacter: the microbe electric's physiology, ecology, and practical applications.. Adv Microb Physiol. 59:1-100.
Williams KH, Nevin KP, Franks A, Englert A, Long PE, Lovley DR.  2010.  Electrode-based approach for monitoring in situ microbial activity during subsurface bioremediation.. Environ Sci Technol. 44(1):47-54.
N'guessan LA, Elifantz H, Nevin KP, Mouser PJ, Methé B, Woodard TL, Manley K, Williams KH, Wilkins MJ, Larsen JT et al..  2010.  Molecular analysis of phosphate limitation in Geobacteraceae during the bioremediation of a uranium-contaminated aquifer.. ISME J. 4(2):253-66.
Zhang T, Gannon SM, Nevin KP, Franks AE, Lovley DR.  2010.  Stimulating the anaerobic degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons in contaminated sediments by providing an electrode as the electron acceptor.. Environ Microbiol. 12(4):1011-20.
Franks AE, Nevin KP, Glaven RH, Lovley DR.  2010.  Microtoming coupled to microarray analysis to evaluate the spatial metabolic status of Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms.. ISME J. 4(4):509-19.
Nevin KP, Woodard TL, Franks AE, Summers ZM, Lovley DR.  2010.  Microbial electrosynthesis: feeding microbes electricity to convert carbon dioxide and water to multicarbon extracellular organic compounds.. MBio. 1(2)
Hedrick DB, Peacock AD, Lovley DR, Woodard TL, Nevin KP, Long PE, White DC.  2009.  Polar lipid fatty acids, LPS-hydroxy fatty acids, and respiratory quinones of three Geobacter strains, and variation with electron acceptor.. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol. 36(2):205-9.
Yi H, Nevin KP, Kim B-C, Franks AE, Klimes A, Tender LM, Lovley DR.  2009.  Selection of a variant of Geobacter sulfurreducens with enhanced capacity for current production in microbial fuel cells.. Biosens Bioelectron. 24(12):3498-503.
Nevin KP, Kim B-C, Glaven RH, Johnson JP, Woodard TL, Methé BA, Didonato RJ, Covalla SF, Franks AE, Liu A et al..  2009.  Anode biofilm transcriptomics reveals outer surface components essential for high density current production in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells.. PLoS One. 4(5):e5628.
Juárez K, Kim B-C, Nevin K, Olvera L, Reguera G, Lovley DR, Methé BA.  2009.  PilR, a transcriptional regulator for pilin and other genes required for Fe(III) reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens.. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. 16(3-4):146-58.
Strycharz SM, Woodard TL, Johnson JP, Nevin KP, Sanford RA, Löffler FE, Lovley DR.  2008.  Graphite electrode as a sole electron donor for reductive dechlorination of tetrachlorethene by Geobacter lovleyi.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 74(19):5943-7.
Nevin KP, Richter H, Covalla SF, Johnson JP, Woodard TL, Orloff AL, Jia H, Zhang M, Lovley DR.  2008.  Power output and columbic efficiencies from biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens comparable to mixed community microbial fuel cells.. Environ Microbiol. 10(10):2505-14.
Holmes DE, Mester T, O'Neil RA, Perpetua LA, Larrahondo JM, Glaven R, Sharma ML, Ward JE, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2008.  Genes for two multicopper proteins required for Fe(III) oxide reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens have different expression patterns both in the subsurface and on energy-harvesting electrodes.. Microbiology. 154(Pt 5):1422-35.
O'Neil RA, Holmes DE, Coppi MV, Adams LA, Larrahondo JM, Ward JE, Nevin KP, Woodard TL, Vrionis HA, N'guessan LA et al..  2008.  Gene transcript analysis of assimilatory iron limitation in Geobacteraceae during groundwater bioremediation.. Environ Microbiol. 10(5):1218-30.
Mahadevan R, Yan B, Postier B, Nevin KP, Woodard TL, O'Neil R, Coppi MV, Methé BA, Krushkal J.  2008.  Characterizing regulation of metabolism in Geobacter sulfurreducens through genome-wide expression data and sequence analysis.. OMICS. 12(1):33-59.
Kim B-C, Postier BL, Didonato RJ, Chaudhuri SK, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2008.  Insights into genes involved in electricity generation in Geobacter sulfurreducens via whole genome microarray analysis of the OmcF-deficient mutant.. Bioelectrochemistry. 73(1):70-5.
Postier B, DiDonato R, Nevin KP, Liu A, Frank B, Lovley D, Methe BA.  2008.  Benefits of in-situ synthesized microarrays for analysis of gene expression in understudied microorganisms.. J Microbiol Methods. 74(1):26-32.
Richter H, McCarthy K, Nevin KP, Johnson JP, Rotello VM, Lovley DR.  2008.  Electricity generation by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to gold electrodes.. Langmuir. 24(8):4376-9.
Coppi MV, O'Neil RA, Leang C, Kaufmann F, Methé BA, Nevin KP, Woodard TL, Liu A, Lovley DR.  2007.  Involvement of Geobacter sulfurreducens SfrAB in acetate metabolism rather than intracellular, respiration-linked Fe(III) citrate reduction.. Microbiology. 153(Pt 10):3572-85.
Ahrendt AJ, Tollaksen SL, Lindberg C, Zhu W, Yates JR, Nevin KP, Babnigg G, Lovley DR, Giometti CS.  2007.  Steady state protein levels in Geobacter metallireducens grown with iron (III) citrate or nitrate as terminal electron acceptor.. Proteomics. 7(22):4148-57.
Nevin KP, Holmes DE, Woodard TL, Covalla SF, Lovley DR.  2007.  Reclassification of Trichlorobacter thiogenes as Geobacter thiogenes comb. nov.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 57(Pt 3):463-6.
Krushkal J, Yan B, DiDonato LN, Puljic M, Nevin KP, Woodard TL, Adkins RM, Methé BA, Lovley DR.  2007.  Genome-wide expression profiling in Geobacter sulfurreducens: identification of Fur and RpoS transcription regulatory sites in a relGsu mutant.. Funct Integr Genomics. 7(3):229-55.
Shelobolina ES, Nevin KP, Blakeney-Hayward JD, Johnsen CV, Plaia TW, Krader P, Woodard T, Holmes DE, Vanpraagh C G, Lovley DR.  2007.  Geobacter pickeringii sp. nov., Geobacter argillaceus sp. nov. and Pelosinus fermentans gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from subsurface kaolin lenses.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 57(Pt 1):126-35.
Holmes DE, O'Neil RA, Vrionis HA, N'guessan LA, Ortiz-Bernad I, Larrahondo MJ, Adams LA, Ward JA, Nicoll JS, Nevin KP et al..  2007.  Subsurface clade of Geobacteraceae that predominates in a diversity of Fe(III)-reducing subsurface environments.. ISME J. 1(8):663-77.
Richter H, Lanthier M, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2007.  Lack of electricity production by Pelobacter carbinolicus indicates that the capacity for Fe(III) oxide reduction does not necessarily confer electron transfer ability to fuel cell anodes.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 73(16):5347-53.
Holmes DE, Nevin KP, Woodard TL, Peacock AD, Lovley DR.  2007.  Prolixibacter bellariivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., a sugar-fermenting, psychrotolerant anaerobe of the phylum Bacteroidetes, isolated from a marine-sediment fuel cell.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 57(Pt 4):701-7.
Butler JE, He Q, Nevin KP, He Z, Zhou J, Lovley DR.  2007.  Genomic and microarray analysis of aromatics degradation in Geobacter metallireducens and comparison to a Geobacter isolate from a contaminated field site.. BMC Genomics. 8:180.
Holmes DE, Chaudhuri SK, Nevin KP, Mehta T, Methé BA, Liu A, Ward JE, Woodard TL, Webster J, Lovley DR.  2006.  Microarray and genetic analysis of electron transfer to electrodes in Geobacter sulfurreducens.. Environ Microbiol. 8(10):1805-15.
Reguera G, Nevin KP, Nicoll JS, Covalla SF, Woodard TL, Lovley DR.  2006.  Biofilm and nanowire production leads to increased current in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 72(11):7345-8.
Khare T, Esteve-Núñez A, Nevin KP, Zhu W, Yates JR, Lovley D, Giometti CS.  2006.  Differential protein expression in the metal-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens strain PCA grown with fumarate or ferric citrate.. Proteomics. 6(2):632-40.
DiDonato LN, Sullivan SA, Methé BA, Nevin KP, England R, Lovley DR.  2006.  Role of RelGsu in stress response and Fe(III) reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens.. J Bacteriol. 188(24):8469-78.
Leang C, Adams LA, Chin K-J, Nevin KP, Methé BA, Webster J, Sharma ML, Lovley DR.  2005.  Adaptation to disruption of the electron transfer pathway for Fe(III) reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens.. J Bacteriol. 187(17):5918-26.
Holmes DE, Nevin KP, O'Neil RA, Ward JE, Adams LA, Woodard TL, Vrionis HA, Lovley DR.  2005.  Potential for quantifying expression of the Geobacteraceae citrate synthase gene to assess the activity of Geobacteraceae in the subsurface and on current-harvesting electrodes.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 71(11):6870-7.
Methé BA, Webster J, Nevin K, Butler J, Lovley DR.  2005.  DNA microarray analysis of nitrogen fixation and Fe(III) reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 71(5):2530-8.
Nevin KP, Holmes DE, Woodard TL, Hinlein ES, Ostendorf DW, Lovley DR.  2005.  Geobacter bemidjiensis sp. nov. and Geobacter psychrophilus sp. nov., two novel Fe(III)-reducing subsurface isolates.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 55(Pt 4):1667-74.
Holmes DE, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2004.  Comparison of 16S rRNA, nifD, recA, gyrB, rpoB and fusA genes within the family Geobacteraceae fam. nov.. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 54(Pt 5):1591-9.
Shelobolina ES, Sullivan SA, O'Neill KR, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2004.  Isolation, characterization, and U(VI)-reducing potential of a facultatively anaerobic, acid-resistant Bacterium from Low-pH, nitrate- and U(VI)-contaminated subsurface sediment and description of Salmonella subterranea sp. nov.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 70(5):2959-65.
Holmes DE, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2004.  In situ expression of nifD in Geobacteraceae in subsurface sediments.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 70(12):7251-9.
Lovley DR, Holmes DE, Nevin KP.  2004.  Dissimilatory Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reduction.. Adv Microb Physiol. 49:219-86.
Nevin KP, Finneran KT, Lovley DR.  2003.  Microorganisms associated with uranium bioremediation in a high-salinity subsurface sediment.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 69(6):3672-5.
Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2002.  Mechanisms for accessing insoluble Fe(III) oxide during dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction by Geothrix fermentans.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 68(5):2294-9.
Klapper L, McKnight DM, Fulton RJ, Blunt-Harris EL, Nevin KP, Lovley DR, Hatcher PG.  2002.  Fulvic acid oxidation state detection using fluorescence spectroscopy.. Environ Sci Technol. 36(14):3170-5.
Kashefi K, Tor JM, Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2001.  Reductive precipitation of gold by dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacteria and archaea.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 67(7):3275-9.
Nevin KP, Lovley DR.  2000.  Lack of production of electron-shuttling compounds or solubilization of Fe(III) during reduction of insoluble Fe(III) oxide by Geobacter metallireducens.. Appl Environ Microbiol. 66(5):2248-51.
Snoeyenbos-West OL, Nevin KP, Anderson RT, Lovley DR.  2000.  Enrichment of Geobacter Species in Response to Stimulation of Fe(III) Reduction in Sandy Aquifer Sediments.. Microb Ecol. 39(2):153-167.
Research interests - short: 

Microbial Fuel Cells Biology