Dr. Sang Yup Lee is Distinguished Professor and LG Chem Chair Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (known as KAIST). He is currently the Dean of College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Director of Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Director of BioProcess Engineering Research Center, and Director of Bioinformatics Research Center. He has published 300 journal papers, 47 books/book chapters, and more than 440 patents either registered or applied. He received numerous awards including 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 Korean Academy of Science and Technology, 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.

Abstract

Systems metabolic engineering for chemicals and materials

As our concerns on environmental problems are increasing, there has been much interest in developing bio-based systems for the production of chemicals, fuels, and materials from renewable resources. Since microorganisms isolated from nature are often inefficient in performing the desired task, their phenotypes have traditionally been improved by random mutagenesis and selection for the production of various bioproducts. This approach was rapidly compensated by metabolic engineering during the last couple of decades. We are now observing another paradigm shift in developing industrial microorganisms thanks to the recent advances in high-throughput experimental techniques and computational methods, which are enabling us to approach biological and biotechnological problems at systems level; it is now becoming possible to perform metabolic engineering at the systems level – thus called systems metabolic engineering. In this lecture, I will present the general strategies for systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the efficient production of chemicals and materials, with several example products such as amino acids, diamines, and biopolymers. It is believed that systems metabolic engineering will be employed as a standard approach towards the development of industrial microorganisms.

[This work was supported by the Korean Systems Biology Research Grant, World Class University program, and BK21 program of MEST through NRF, and by LG Chem Chair Professorship.]