On March 11, Jay D. Keasling, Member of National Academy of Engineering, Professor of University of California, Berkeley, delivered Zhang Dayu lecture (XXXI) entitled “Engineered Polyketide Synthases as Platform for Synthetic Chemistry” at the academic hall of Biotechnology Building.
Prof. ZHAO Zongbao K. chaired the lecture and Prof. CAI Rui, the deputy director of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), awarded Prof. Keasling the “ZHANG Dayu Lectureship” certificate and granted him as an honorary Professor of DICP. More than 150 staffs and students attended this event.
Prof. Jay D. Keasling delivered Zhang Dayu Lecture (XXXI). (Photo by LIU Wansheng)
In the lecture, Prof. Keasling pointed out that engineered modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) have the potential to be an extraordinarily effective retrosynthesis platform. He briefly discussed the mechanisms of PKS-mediated biosynthesis, and presented his recent work on engineering PKSs by mixing, rearranging and matching naturally occurring PKS domains to produce a variety of commodity and specialty chemicals. He also answered a number of questions from the audiences and talked more details on some specific issues beyond his lecture.
After the lecture, Prof. Keasling visited Energy Biotechnology Platform and several research groups of Division of Biotechnology and Division of Biomass Conversion & Bio-Energy. A few Professors and young scientists participated in academic exchange and discussion. (Text by NING Siyang and LIU Yuxue)