Post-Doctorate Researcher
University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, 2008
University of Minnesota
University of Houston
Office Location: 220 Calvin Hall
Office Telephone: 510-643-3720
Office Fax: 510-642-1053
My research interests aim at designing, constructing, and characterizing efficient and robust whole-cell biocatalysts useful for biotechnological applications. Inverse metabolic engineering coupled with advanced fermentation techniques are applied to optimize performances of whole-cell biocatalysts to achieve high yields, titers, and productivities. One of the projects that I am pursuing is to engineer efficient and robust microorganisms to produce advanced biofuels such as isobutanol, butanol, fatty alcohols and biodiesels from biomass feedstocks. I am also studying mechanisms of solvent toxicity that result in inhibition of cell growth and of solvent production in order to develop strategies to engineer microorganisms to exhibit high solvent tolerance. One of the tools that I am developing to tackle the problem is gene swapping and amplification that discover useful phenotypes such as high solvent tolerance from different microorganisms and transfer them into an engineered host.
1. Trinh, C.T., Huffer, S., Clark, M., Blanch, B., Clark, D. Elucidating Mechanisms of Solvent Toxicity in ethanologenic Escherichia coli (submitted).
2. Unrean, P., Trinh, C.T., Srienc, F. 2009. Rational design and construction of an efficient E. coli for production of diapolycopendioic acid. Metab Eng (in press).
3. Trinh, C.T., Srienc, F., 2009. Metabolic Engineering of Escherichia coli for Efficient Conversion of Glycerol into Ethanol. Appl Environ Microbiol 75(21): 6696-6705.
4. Jevremovic, D., Trinh, C.T., Srienc, F., Boley, D. On Algebraic Properties of Extreme Pathways in Metabolic Networks. J Comp Biol (in press)
5. Trinh, C.T., Wlaschin, A.P., Srienc, F., 2009. Metabolic Pathway Analysis: A Useful Tool for Characterizing Cellular Metabolism. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 81(5): 813-826.
6. Trinh, C.T., Unrean, P., Srienc, F. 2008. A minimal Escherichia coli cell for most efficient ethanol production from hexoses and pentoses. Appl Environ Microbiol 74: 3634-3643.
7. Trinh, C.T., Carlson, R., Wlaschin, A.P., Srienc, F., 2006. Design, construction and performance of the most efficient biomass producing E. coli bacterium. Metab. Eng. 8: 628-638.
8. Wlaschin, A.P., Trinh, C.T., Carlson, R., Srienc, F., 2006. The fractional contributions of elementary modes to the metabolism of E. coli and their estimation from reaction entropies. Metab. Eng. 8: 338-352.