Title: Engineering Bacteria to Reveal Biological Principles and to Target Tumors

Lecturer: Prof. Jiandong Huang           

                 LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

Time: PM15:00, February 13, 2017 (Monday).

Venue: Lecture hall E307, School of Life Sciences.

Invitor: Prof. Guo Fu

Abstract：The genomic era started with the Genome Projects of various model organisms, including humans, conferring the human race the ability to read genomes for its stored information. When the reading technology reaches its full capacity, the next phase of genome research should be ready to embark on the design (a.k.a., writing) of new genomes. The synthesis of designed genomes will create new life forms and will allow a true advance of genomics to the stage of biotechnological applications that generate bioproducts of energy, environment, and healthcare relevance. In this presentation, Dr. Huang will discuss his work on designing and engineering bacteria to reveal the principle underlying biological pattern formation and to target tumors.

Biography：Prof. Huang earned a BS from Fudan University in Shanghai, then then undertook a PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. During his post-doctoral work at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH, he was the first to report that the two major intracellular transportation systems of mammalian cells, the microtubule- and actin-filament-based system directly interact with each other through their motor proteins, kinesin and myosin. In 1998, he established his own laboratory in Hong Kong, and now focuses on synthetic biology, which is the design and fabrication of biological components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world; and the re-design and fabrication of existing biological systems for useful purposes.