Our lab is interested in the biomolecular engineering for applications in bioenergy and medicine. Microbial cells have been programmed to have exquisite catalytic power in synthesis of a large array of important molecules. Recent advances in our understanding of these biosynthetic machineries have provided unprecedented opportunities to biosynthesize target molecules, including complex drugs and important biofuels. This also promotes the development of biocatalysis, which represents a more efficient and cost-effective way for industrial process. The main aim of research in this lab is to harness the power of cellular enzymes towards the engineered biosynthesis of target molecules including pharmaceuticals and biofuels. The research theme includes genome mining for new bioactive small molecule and enzyme discovery, pathway enzymes identification and characterization, pathway design toward combinatorial natural product biosynthesis and biofuel production, as well as engineering of pathway enzymes for biocatalysis application. Our approach will combine principles in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, protein engineering and metabolic engineering. Read more...