Yong-Su Jin

Assistant Professor in Microbial Genomics
Faculty member of Institute for Genomic Biology

Research Interests

Synthetic and systems biotechnology for strain improvement

Quantitative microbial physiology at both molecular and systems levels

Metabolic engineering for production of value added products (fuels, chemicals, and nutraceuticals)

Dr. Jin's research focuses on discovery and understanding of genetic and environmental perturbations which elicit beneficial phenotypes of microorganism through systems and synthetic approaches. Specifically, Dr. Jin is working on elucidating relationships between genotype and phenotypes in the context of value-added biotransformation (fuels and chemicals) and stress tolerance (solvents, nanomaterials, and antibiotics).

Selected publications

Jin, Y. S. and G. Stephanopoulos. 2007. Multi-dimensional gene target search for improving lycopene biosynthesis in Escherichia coli. Metabolic Engineering 9:337-347

Jeffries, T. W., I. Grigoriev, H. Grimwood, J. M. Laplaza, A. Aerts, A. Salamov, J. Schmuts, E. Lindquist, P. Dehal, H. Shapiro, Y. S. Jin, V. Passoth, and P. M. Richardson. 2007. Genomic sequence of the xylose fermenting, insect-inhabiting yeast, Pichia stipitis. Nature Biotechnology 25:319-326

Jin, Y. S., Alper, H, Y. T. Yang, and G. Stephanopoulos. 2005. Improvement of xylose uptake and ethanol production in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae through an inverse metabolic engineering approach. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71:8249-8256

Alper, H., Jin, Y. S., J. Moxley, and G. Stephanopoulos. 2005. Identifying gene targets for the metabolic engineering of lycopene biosynthesis in Escherichia coli. Metabolic Engineering 7:155-164

Jin, Y. S., J. M. Laplaza, and T.W. Jeffries. 2004. Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for xylose metabolism exhibits a respiratory response. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70:6816-6815

Jin, Y. S., and T. W. Jeffries. 2004. Stoichiometric network constraints on xylose metabolism by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Metabolic Engineering 6:229-38

Jin, Y. S., H. Ni, J. M. Laplaza, and T. W. Jeffries. 2003. Optimal growth and ethanol production from xylose by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae require moderate D-xylulokinase activity. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:495-503

Teaching

Courses recently taught:

FSHN 472 - Sanitation of Food Processing

Latest Degree

Ph. D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Jin received his B.S. and M. S. in Food Science and Technology at Seoul National University 1996 and 1998, respectively. In 2002 he received Ph. D. degree in Food Science and Bacteriology (minor) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the advisement of Prof. Thomas Jeffries. After completing a post-doctoral training under the advisement of Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea from 2006 to 2008. In August of 2008, he joined the faculty of Food Science and Human Nutrition as an Assistant Professor in Microbial Genomics.