Curriculum Vitae
Education
2008 – 2012: Ph.D. Biochemical Engineering
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
Advisor Pingsheng Ma
Ph.D. thesis Metabolic Engineering, Cofactor Engineering and Enzymatic Engineering for Construction of Recombinant Xylose-utilizing Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strains to Produce Ethanol
2006 – 2008: M.S. Biochemical Engineering
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Advisor Pingsheng Ma
2002 – 2006: B.S. Biochemical Engineering
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
Work experience
06/2018 - Present: Scientist 3 at Amyris, San Francisco Bay Area, US
Biology department
• As a core team member, developed engineered yeast strains for manufacturing scale production of two valuable molecules
• As a team lead, built an ultra high-efficiency genome engineering toolbox for the company's automated strain engineering pipeline
• As a team lead, designed and implemented a novel genetic switch system that is capable of turning metabolic pathway on and off as needed in all the company’s production strains.
05/2016 – 05/2018: Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Yong-Su Jin and Donald Ort
Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) Project - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Harnessing green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism for plant research
1 Developed a cloning method allowing one-step assembly of up to 12 DNA fragments.
2 Working on functional expression of a variety of photorespiration bypass pathways in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
3 Metabolomics study of a photorespiration deficient Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain to identify the missing part of its photorespiration bypass.
10/2015 – 05/2016: Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Yong-Su Jin
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Developing the yeast ‘whole cell enzyme’ for food-grade rare sugar production from abundant disaccharide
1 Engineered a completely novel pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for D-tagatose bioconversion from lactose in dairy waste. This technique has been patented and was licensed by Sugarlogix Inc.
2 Developed a completely novel process enabling continuous cost-effective D-allulose production from sugarcane juice and/or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) using Saccharomyces cerevisiae whole cell enzyme. This technique is now under patenting process.
05/2012 – 10/2015: Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Yong-Su Jin
Energy BioScience Institute (EBI) - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Improving biofuels and value-added chemicals production from lignocellulosic biomass derived carbon sources by yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
1 Realized cost-effective lactic acid production from lactose and whey in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae without PDC or ADH deletion.
2 Expressed Lactococcus lactis NADH oxidase in PDC-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae, leading to increased 2, 3-butanediol production.
3 Optimized an acetate reduction pathway in engineered saccharomyces cerevisiae, allowing efficient xylose and acetic acid co-consumption and thus significantly increased ethanol yield (18.4% increase in actual lignucellulosic hydrolysates).
• Expanding and unifying yeast metabolic engineering toolbox with the CRISPR-Cas9 based technology
1 Realized simple and efficient genome editing in a polyploidy industrial yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae using CRISPR-Cas9.
2 Enabled facile metabolic engineering in a probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii, including gene knock out, knock in and knock down.
09/2006 – 01/2012: Graduate study towards a Ph.D. with Prof. Pingsheng Ma
Department of Biochemical Engineering at Tianjin University, China
• Bioethanol production from cornstarch and xylose by engineered yeast.
1 Improved corn ethanol yield and productivity by 3’ truncation of the GPD1 promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
2 Decreased byproducts yield and increased ethanol yield during xylose fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by overexpression of the Lactococcus lactis NADH oxidase.
Relevant research skillsets
• Various yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces boulardii) and micro-algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) molecular genetics and cell biology techniques including PCR and RT-PCR, plasmid construction, cloning and subcloning, site directed mutagenesis, gene inactivation, SDS-PAGE, western blot, enzymatic characterization, tetrad dissection, fluorescence microscopy, yeast two hybrid assay and other yeast techniques. State-to-the-art CRISPR-Cas9 techniques for gene knock out, gene knock in, knock down and site-specific mutation in yeast.
• Skilled at microbial fermentations using lab scale bioreactors; familiar with analytical machines such as HPLC, GCMS and NMR for determining the composition and concentration of fermentation end products.
• Fluent bilingual (English and Chinese) speaking and writing skills.
Leadership/Mentoring experiences
• As a senior PhD student, successfully led a team of 4 master students and 1 junior PhD student during their graduate study serving as the advisor on the project of second generation bioethanol production at Tianjin University (2010 - 2012).
• As a senior postdoctoral associate, trained 3 junior PhD students during their graduate study at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2013-2017)
Patents
· Yong-Su Jin, Jing-Jing Liu, Jamie Cate, Kulika Chomvong, Guo-Chang Zhang. "Engineered microorganisms for conversion of oligosaccharides into functional sweeteners". UIUC2016-009-01(PRO). Filed on 09/27/2016 and licensed by Sugarlogix, Inc.
· Yong-Su Jin, Guo-Chang Zhang, Jing-Jing Liu. "Enzyme-free bioconversion of sucrose and fructose into allulose by engineered microorganism". UIUC2017-073-01(PRO). Filed on 10/19/2017.
Award
Awarded the 10th business plan competition “Chunhui” in 2015, China