卢嘉锡讲座

报告题目：Expanding the Boundary of Biocatalysis

报告时间：2024-06-19 09:00

报告人： Prof. Huimin Zhao

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

报告地点：卢嘉锡楼202报告厅

转播地点：翔安校区能源材料大楼3号楼会议室5，漳州校区生化主楼307教室

报告摘要：

Biocatalysis has been increasingly used for practical synthesis of chemicals, fuels, and materials thanks to recent advances in enzyme engineering, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), and laboratory automation. In this talk, I will discuss our recent effort in designing novel synthetic routes and repurposed enzymes for synthesis of fine chemicals by exploring the synergy between enzymatic catalysis and non-enzymatic catalysis. Particularly, I will highlight our new strategies of combining photocatalysis with biocatalysis for abiological transformations, which offer many advantages such as new reactivity, high enantioselectivity, greener syntheses, and high yields. In addition, I will highlight the development of machine learning and laboratory automation tools for enzyme discovery and engineering. Finally, I will introduce our new AI/ML tools for synthesis planning that integrates chemical catalysis and biocatalysis. All these strategies and tools should greatly accelerate the development of biocatalysts for applications related to human health, energy, and sustainability.

报告人简介：

Dr. Huimin Zhao is the Steven L. Miller Chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), director of NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis (moleculemaker.org), and Editor in Chief of ACS Synthetic Biology. He received his B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1992 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Dr. Frances Arnold.  Prior to joining UIUC in 2000, he was a project leader at the Industrial Biotechnology Laboratory of the Dow Chemical Company. He was promoted to full professor in 2008. Dr. Zhao has authored and co-authored over 440 research articles and over 30 issued and pending patent applications. In addition, he has given over 495 plenary, keynote, or invited lectures. Thirty-seven (37) of his former graduate students and postdocs became professors or principal investigators around the world. Dr. Zhao received numerous research and teaching awards and honors such as AIChE Daniel I.C. Wang Award, AIChE FP&B Division Award, ECI Enzyme Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, and SIMB Charles Thom Award. His primary research interests are in the development and applications of synthetic biology, machine learning, and laboratory automation tools to address society’s most daunting challenges in health, energy, and sustainability.

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