Dongsoo Yang, postdoctoral researcher at KAIST Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (PI Dr. Sang Yup Lee), was appointed as an assistant professor at Korea University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, starting from September. He has contributed to the IIMENA project by establishing E. coli chassis strains for the production of important aromatic polyketides. His major achievements through the IIMENA project include the development of a malonyl-CoA biosensor for the production of polyketides (published in PNAS) and the development of E. coli capable of producing carminic acid, a natural red colorant (published in JACS). As an assistant professor at Korea University, he will be in charge of the Synthetic Biology and Enzyme Engineering Laboratory (SynBEE Lab; yanglaboratory.com). He is aiming to develop new enzymes for the production of pharmaceutical natural products that are totally new-to-nature. He is also planning on developing synthetic biology tools that will be useful for both biomanufacturing and microbiome engineering.
