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Ask the Expert is a forum for scientists at all stages of their careers to ask questions of leading researchers in the field of chemical biology about the techniques their labs use and the types of research they are now doing. Updates will be posted weekly to this website, so check back frequently for new answers.
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Synthetic Biology, Biofuels, and Pharmaceuticals
Michelle Chang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry,
University of California, Berkeley
Michelle Chang’s research laboratory utilizes the approaches of mechanistic biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to address problems in energy and human health. Using the unique biochemistry evolved in environmental niches, she is interested in designing and creating new chemical function in living cells for production of biofuels from abundant crop feedstocks and pharmaceuticals from natural products or natural product scaffolds. To learn more about Michelle Chang and her research, please see her Profile in Volume 2, Issue 12. |
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Which do you think is easier and why: Increasing the photoefficiency of solar cells or those of plants (i.e. switchgrass, algae, etc.)?
Martin Brandenberger
That’s an interesting and complex question to which I don’t have an answer. Although both solar cells and photosynthesis....more
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As a research chemist at Hull University, I had the pleasure to work on brequinar analgoue compounds and mione was using chlorine as a substituent. Can you envision your research helping in the future synthesis of these compounds, or will they prove to be sterically hindering the synthesis? I myself am bioorganic/organic chemist and the field is exciting as we know about how bacteria is used in the baeyer villager process
Janine Gillespie
Many natural product analogues have been successfully produced by chemoenzymatic methods and metabolic engineering. In addition, these compounds can be further diversified by chemical modification, s....more
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How is synthetic biology dealing with creating renewable sources of energy in new ways?
Metabolic engineering is central to the production of fuels from plant biomass, from breaking down structural polymers such as cellulose or engineering yeast to consume all the different sugars from ....more
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