Fungal Biotechnology

view profile for Joonhoon Kim

Joonhoon Kim

Director of Fungal Biotechnology

view profile for John Gladden

John Gladden

Deputy Director of Pretreatment Optimization and Process Integration and Fungal Biotechnology

view profile for Ziyu Dai

Ziyu Dai

Scientist

view profile for Jiayuan Jia

Jiayuan Jia

Post Doctoral Researcher

Fungi are an integral part of lignocellulosic conversion processes from enzyme to biofuel and bioproducts production. Particular filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus niger are able to produce a large variety and amount of enzymes that can deconstruct polysaccharides to sugars and lignin to aromatic substrates, that is key to maximizing the use of the carbon in the biomass feedstocks. An oleaginous yeast, Rhodosporidium toruloides, able to utilize a variety of sugars and lignin derived molecules, is being engineered in a collaboration with the Biofuels and Bioproducts Division to produce advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals. Researchers in the Fungal Biotechnology Group utilize a broad range of molecular biology, integrated omics and modeling techniques to build more efficient tools for engineering the fungi and identifying genes important in more efficient enzyme production and higher flux to fuel precursors from diverse plant biomass substrates.

Projects

  • Develop and extend genetic engineering tools and genome-scale metabolic models for fungi
  • Expand the capabilities of heterologous gene expression hosts for complex metalloenzymes involved in lignin depolymerization
  • Identify catabolic pathways and transporters for lignin-derived intermediates using multi-omics approaches and metabolic modeling
  • Engineer fungal hosts for conversion of depolymerized lignin and polysaccharides to bioproduct and biofuel precursors

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