Research
Metabolic Engineering
Metabolic Engineering focuses on the development and optimization of microbial strains for purpose of producing biomaterials, biochemicals, and biofuels of interest. In our laboratory, we have developed several microbial strains including Escherichia coli, yeast, and lactic acid bacteria for the production of biochemicals and biofuels.
Currently, we are focusing on engineering isoprenoid pathways for the production of isoprenoid derivatives of industrially interest such as carotenoids, isoprenoid sugars, natural rubber, and isoprene fuels.
Systems Biology
Systems Biology helps us comprehensively understand and interpret systems of microbial cells by studying the dynamics of genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes. Currently, we are interested in genome-scale engineering using rational or random mutagenesis approaches (Adaptive and Forced Evolving).
Comprehensive systems-level analysis of evolved strains gives excellent information about cellular regulation of microbial systems in the production of compounds of interest. Next-Generation Sequencing Technology and computational biology will help us gain deep insights into evolved microbial systems.
Biodegradibility Investigation
Biodegradability investigation focuses on testing the biodegradability of polymers, discovering the biodegradability factors, and optimizing factors for enhancing biodegradability of polymers under conditions mimicking the natural environment of soil and marine environment. Our lab is currently working on biodegradation-related tasks for polyester and polycarbonate polymers.
In addition to research on the biodegradation of polymers, we are investigating the changes in the distribution of environmental microorganisms and genes that occur during the biodegradation of polymers with NGS technology. In the future, we plan to research the identification of microorganisms involved in the biodegradation of polymers, genetic manipulation of the identified microorganisms, and the discovery of enzymes involved in biodegradation.
