Special Researcher/Tenure-track Associate Professor
Plant natural products represent a class of bioactive compounds which are widely used in pharmacy, health products, food and cosmetics. We will elucidate the biosynthetic mechanism of several important plant natural products, assemble the related pathway enzymes in E. coli or yeast host cells using the synthetic biology tool, and finally achieve the microbial production of those important chemicals.
Constructing microbial cell factories that produce biorenewables at economically viable yields and titers is often hampered by toxicities from both accumulated product and inhibitors in raw materials. We will elucidate the damage mechanism of cell factories caused by those toxic chemicals, and thus conceive corresponding resistant strategies. Through constructing highly tolerant cell factories, we will pave the way for eco-efficient synthesis of biorenewables.
The key for constructing microbial cell factories relies on the design of biosynthetic pathway. However, naturally evolved pathways might be optimal for survival and propagation of living beings but not for the highly efficient production of target chemicals. To address this, we will firstly conceive the novel pathways using computational method, mine the required enzymes from the currently available database, and finally assemble those enzymes together into the microbial hosts. Through creation and application of those novel pathways with superior capacities, we hope achieve the high production of the interested products.
Li, J., Mu, X., Dong, W., Chen, Y., Kang, Q., Zhao, G., ... & Tan, Z. (2024). A non-carboxylative route for the efficient synthesis of central metabolite malonyl-CoA and its derived products. Nature Catalysis, 1-14.
Sun, W., Chen, Y., Li, M., Shah, S. B., Wang, T., Hou, J., ... & Tan, Z. (2023). Integration of (S)-2, 3-oxidosqualene enables E. coli to become Iron Man E. coli with improved overall tolerance. Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts, 16(1), 191.
Li, M., Sun, W., Wang, X., Chen, K., Feng, Y., & Tan, Z. (2024). A Eukaryote-Featured Membrane Phospholipid Enhances Bacterial Formaldehyde Tolerance and Assimilation of One-Carbon Feedstocks. ACS Synthetic Biology.
Tan, Z., Li, J., Hou, J., & Gonzalez, R. (2023). Designing artificial pathways for improving chemical production. Biotechnology Advances, 64, 108119.
Clomburg, J. M., Qian, S., Tan, Z., Cheong, S., & Gonzalez, R. (2019). The isoprenoid alcohol pathway, a synthetic route for isoprenoid biosynthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(26), 12810-12815.
Tan, Z., Yoon, J. M., Chowdhury, A., Burdick, K., Jarboe, L. R., Maranas, C. D., & Shanks, J. V. (2018). Engineering of E. coli inherent fatty acid biosynthesis capacity to increase octanoic acid production. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 11, 1-15.
Tan, Z., Clomburg, J. M., & Gonzalez, R. (2018). Synthetic pathway for the production of olivetolic acid in Escherichia coli. ACS synthetic biology, 7(8), 1886-1896.
Tan, Z., Khakbaz, P., Chen, Y., Lombardo, J., Yoon, J. M., Shanks, J. V., ... & Jarboe, L. R. (2017). Engineering Escherichia coli membrane phospholipid head distribution improves tolerance and production of biorenewables. Metabolic engineering, 44, 1-12.
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