Seminar announcement:Biotechnology Paradigm Shift: From Living Microorganisms to Cell-Free Biomanufacturing

Title: Biotechnology Paradigm Shift: From Living Microorganisms to Cell-Free Biomanufacturing

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Y.-H. Percival Zhang, Virginia Tech, USA

Date: May 26, 2014, 10 am

Venue: The 2^nd Meeting Room, Meeting Center of Jiangsu University

Dr. Zhang is a full Professor of Virginia Tech, USA, and serves as associate editor of “energy Science & Engineering” and “PLoS One”. Prof. Zhang has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in famous journals including PNAS, Nature Communication, and Angew Chem. His publications have got over 3000 citations and have H-index of 31. The mission of his Lab is to solve key problems associated with the sustainability revolution through out-of-the-box solutions, which are based on well-known technologies while look like crazy ideas. He plan to construct the electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogene (ECHo) cycle using cell-free biomanufacturing system. His talk will introduce the concept of this disruptive technology platform, present its four major applications: (i) the highest yield production of hydrogen for C5 and C6 sugars [2]; (ii) enzymatic transformation of cellulose to amylose, a value-added co-product [3]; (iii) the generation of electricity via a sugar biobattery [4], and (iv) CO₂ fixation; and as well as develop building blocks- synthetic metabolons [5] and engineered redox enzymes working on biomimetic cofatcors.