The Ohio State University - USA

Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

David H. George Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering

Biography

Yang is Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), Food Science & Technology (FST), Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Genetics, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program, and Biochemistry Graduate Program (OSBP) at The Ohio State University. Yang has been involved in bioprocessing research for more than 40 years, and has 12 related patents, some of which have been licensed to companies for commercial development. During his 36+ years at OSU, Yang has supervised many research projects on novel bioprocesses for value-added products from food and agricultural wastes, including metabolic engineering of clostridia and black yeast for biofuels and bio-based chemicals production, extractive fermentation for production of carboxylic acids, and novel bioreactor design and process scale up. His group pioneered in engineering clostridia for high-titer and high-yield butyric acid and n-butanol production from renewable biomass and CO₂. His research group also developed the first 3D cell culture system that can mimic in vivo tissue environment and be used reliably in high-throughput screening of chemicals for their embryotoxic potentials and/or as cancer drug targets. His current research involves biocatalysis, fermentation for value-added products from biomass and industrial wastes, metabolic engineering, stem cell and tissue engineering, and biochips for high-throughput cell-based assays and biodiagnostics. Dr. Yang has published more than 375 journal papers, proceeding articles, and book chapters in the field of bioprocess engineering, with over 17,500 total citations and an h-index of 77.

Title of the lecture:  synthetic biology and biomanufacturing of chemicals for food and health applications