Synthetic Biology and Biocatalysis for Natural-Product Discovery and Production
Not stated
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
- Application deadline
- Year-round applications
About the project
About the Project Projects in this direction aim to uncover how nature produces structurally complex bioactive natural products and use these insights to develop new biosynthetic and biocatalytic systems. You will mine candidate genes and enzymes through genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, followed by functional characterization through heterologous expression and advanced analytical platforms (LC–MS, NMR). Selected pathways can be reconstructed in microbial or plant hosts to study pathway organisation and metabolic flux, while enzyme engineering, including structural modelling, mutagenesis, and directed evolution, may be used to improve catalytic activity performance. Applicants from synthetic biology, plant biology, biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, bioengineering and computational biology are encouraged to apply. Competitive scholarships are available. Candidates must apply separately for scholarship support. Funding is not guaranteed and is awarded based on academic merit. Principal Investigator: Professor Xiaoguang Lei Email: xglei@pku.edu.cn Telephone: +86-10-6276-0292 Laboratory webpage: https://www.chem.pku.edu.cn/leigroup/