Sang Yup Lee
Distinguished Professor, Director and Dean Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Speaker
Sang Yup Lee, PhD, is a Distinguished
Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He serves as
Director of BioProcess Engineering Research Center, Bioinformatics Research
Center, and Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology. Professor Lee also
serves as a Co-Director of the new institute called the Institute for the
BioCentury at KAIST. He is currently Dean of the College of Life Science and
Bioengineering.
He has published
366 journal papers, 51 books/book chapters, and 524 patents—either registered
or applied. He received numerous awards, including the National Order of Merit,
Merck Metabolic Engineering Award from Merck, and Elmer Gaden Award from
Biotechnology and Bioengineering. He is currently Fellow of AAAS, Fellow of
American Academy of Microbiology, Fellow of Society for Industrial
Microbiology, Fellow of Korean Academy of Science and Technology, Fellow of
National Academy of Engineering Korea, Foreign Associate of National Academy of
Engineering USA, Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology Journal, and Associate Editor
and board member of numerous journals. His research interests are systems biology
and biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, metabolic engineering, and
nanobiotechnology.
Presentation Summary
In the face of human induced climate change, scientists need to explore alternative fuel and chemical production methods that rely less on fossil fuels. One option is to harness the natural ability of cells to produce useful chemicals, fuels, and polymers from renewable biomass. With metabolic engineering the capacity of cells to produce desired chemicals can be optimised to achieve efficient production.With the use of a metabolically engineered strain of E.coli, for example, a one stage biorefinery process can produce polylactic acid and its copolymers through direct fermentation. This makes the renewable production of PLA and lactate-containing copolymers cheaper and more commercially viable.
