Staff information

Biography

Dr. Paul Majors is a physical chemist specializing in in vivo metabolomics technology development for live cell systems. In the advancement of these technologies, Dr. Majors measures the metabolism of microbes maintained in a known and controlled growth environment using noninvasive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. This involves the development and integration of cell-cultivation hardware (flow cells and bioreactors) with NMR microscopy and spectroscopy experimental methods to interrogate the samples maintained therein. Dr. Majors’ developments include unique depth-resolved biomass, metabolism and materials transport measurement methods for fragile, live microbial biofilms relevant to human and environmental health, and chemostat studies of microbial suspensions relevant to biofuels production.

Before joining Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2001, Dr. Majors was a research scientist for the University of Texas, Austin from 1991; and a research professor at Lovelace Medical Foundation and the University of New Mexico from 1989. His NMR background was founded upon the mechanics of solid-state NMR as a graduate student and NMR imaging and flow measurements as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Majors has also researched velocity mapping of multiple-phase flowing suspensions and quantitative NMR methods for enhanced oil recovery and environmental remediation research.

Dr. Majors is the author or co-author of approximately 90 publications, book chapters, and presentations.

Research Interests

• Basic and applied NMR imaging, spectroscopy, microscopy, diffusion, flow
• Combined optical/NMR techniques for the characterization of biological and material samples

Education and Credentials

• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lovelace Medical Foundation
• Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, University of South Carolina
• B.S., Chemistry and Mathematics, Frostburg State University

PNNL Publications

2008

• Majors PD, and JS Mclean. 2008. "Dynamic Metabolism Studies of Live Bacterial Films." Chapter 22 in Magnetic Resonance Microscopy, ed. S Codd and JD Seymour, pp. 353-362.  Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. 
• Majors PD, JS Mclean, and JC Scholten. 2008. "NMR bioreactor development for live in-situ microbial functional analysis." Journal of Magnetic Resonance 192(1):159-166.  doi:10.1016/j.jmr.2008.02.014
• Mclean JS, PD Majors, CL Reardon, CL Bilskis, SB Reed, MF Romine, and JK Fredrickson. 2008. "Investigations of Structure and Metabolism within Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 Biofilms ." Journal of Microbiological Methods 74(1):47-56. 
• Mclean JS, O Ona, and PD Majors. 2008. "Correlated Biofilm Imaging, Transport and Metabolism Measurements via Combined Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Confocal Microscopy ." The ISME Journal 2(2) :121-131.  doi:10.1038/ismej.2007.107

2006

• Liu C, JM Zachara, W Yantasee, PD Majors, and JP McKinley. 2006. "Microscopic Reactive Diffusion of Uranium in the Contaminated Sediments at Hanford, United States." Water Resources Research 42(W12420):1-15.  doi:10.1029/2006WR005031
• Minard KR, VV Vishwanathan, PD Majors, LQ Wang, and PC Rieke. 2006. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of PEM Dehydration and Gas Manifold Flooding During Continuous Fuel Cell Operation." Journal of Power Sources 161(2):856-863. 
• Wind RA, JZ Hu, and PD Majors. 2006. "Localized in Vivo Isotropic-Anisotropic Correlation 1H NMR Spectroscopy Using Ultraslow Magic Angle Spinning." Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 55(1):41-49. 

2005

• Majors PD, JS Mclean, JK Fredrickson, and RA Wind. 2005. "NMR methods for in-situ biofilm metabolism studies: spatial and temporal resolved measurements." Water Science and Technology 52(7):7-12. 
• Majors PD, JS Mclean, GE Pinchuk, JK Fredrickson, YA Gorby, KR Minard, and RA Wind. 2005. "NMR methods for in-situ biofilm metabolism studies." Journal of Microbiological Methods 62(3):337-344. 
• Wind RA, JZ Hu, and PD Majors. 2005. "Slow-MAS NMR: A New Technology for In Vivo Metabolomic Studies." Drug Discovery Today. Technologies 2(3):291-294.  doi:10.1016/j.ddtec.2005.08.009

2004

• Minard KR, GR Holtom, LE Kathmann, PD Majors, BD Thrall, and RA Wind. 2004. "Simultaneous 1H PFG-NMR and Confocal Microscopy of Monolayer Cell Cultures: Effects of Apoptosis and Necrosis on Water Diffusion and Compartmentalization." Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 52(3):495-505. 

2002

• Majors PD, KR Minard, EJ Ackerman, GR Holtom, DF Hopkins, CI Parkinson, TJ Weber, and RA Wind. 2002. "A combined confocal and magnetic resonance microscope for biological studies." Review of Scientific Instruments 73(12):4329-4338. 
• Daly DS, RA Wind, PD Majors, KK Anderson, GR Holtom, and EJ Ackerman. 2002. "An Integrated Confocal and Magnetic Resonance Microscope for Observing Living Cells." In 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging Macro to Nano, pp. 801-804.  IEEE, New York, NY. 
• Wind RA, PD Majors, KR Minard, EJ Ackerman, DS Daly, GR Holtom, BD Thrall, and TJ Weber. 2002. "Combined Confocal and Magnetic Resonance Microscopy." Applied Magnetic Resonance 22(2):145-158. 
• Zuluaga E, PD Majors, and EJ Peters. 2002. "A Simulation Approach To Validate Petrophysical Data from NMR Imaging." SPE Journal 7(1):35-39. 

2000

• Wind RA, KR Minard, GR Holtom, PD Majors, EJ Ackerman, SD Colson, D Cory, DS Daly, PD Ellis, NF Metting, CI Parkinson, JM Price, and XW Tang. 2000. "An Integrated Confocal and Magnetic Resonance Microscope for Cellular Research." Journal of Magnetic Resonance 147(2):371-377. 

Selected Publications

2009

• Majors PD and JS Mclean. "Dynamic Metabolism Studies of Live Bacterial Films" in: Magnetic Resonance Microscopy. S. L. Codd and J. D. Seymour (Eds.), Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2009.

2008

• Faculty of 1000 Biology: evaluations for McLean JS et al ISME J 2008 Feb 2 (2):121-31.

• McLean JS, ON Ona and PD Majors. 2008. "Correlated biofilm imaging, transport and metabolism measurements via combined nuclear magnetic resonance and confocal microscopy." ISME Journal 2(2), 121-131.

• McLean, JS, PD Majors, CL Reardon, CL Bilskis, SB Reed, MF Romine and JK Fredrickson. 2008. "Investigations of structure and metabolism within Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 biofilms." Journal of Microbiological Methods, accepted 18FEB2008.

• Majors PD, JS McLean and JCM Scholten. 2008. "NMR bioreactor development for live in-situ microbial functional analysis." Journal of Magnetic Resonance, accepted 12FEB2008.