Vice Chair of Biomolecular Engineering
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
The Charles Wilke Professor in Chemical Engineering
email: wjzhang@berkeley.edu
office: 116 Gilman Hall
phone: (510) 643-8682
lab: 242 EBB
lab phone: (510) 664-7667
Research Group
Recent Publications
Research Interests
Biomolecular Engineering
Our lab is interested in biomolecular engineering for applications related to human health and bioenergy. Microbial cells have been programmed to possess exquisite catalytic power in the synthesis of a large array of important natural products. Recent advances in understanding of these biosynthetic machineries have provided unprecedented opportunities to biosynthesize target molecules including pharmaceuticals and biofuels. Our research theme includes understanding and engineering the biosynthesis of natural products, new bioactive small molecule discovery and functional study, and development of new research toolkit to promote the natural product research with a particular focus on natural product tagging and applications.
Biography
- B.S., Biochemistry, Nanjing University (2002)
- M.S., Biochemistry, Nanjing University (2004)
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (2009)
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School (2009-2011)
- Pew Biomedical Scholar (2012)
- Hellman Foundation Faculty Award (2015)
- NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2015)
- Paul Saltman Award in Bioinorganic Chemistry (2016)
- Sloan Research Fellow (2016)
- Director, Agilent Biodesign Program (2020)