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Yasuo Yoshikuni – Synthetic Biology-Pathway Engineering

Yasuo Yoshikuni

Yasuo Yoshikuni

  • DNA Synthesis Science Program Head
  • Synthetic Biology-Pathway Engineering Group Lead
  • Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Education

  • B.E. in Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan (summa cum laude)
  • Ph.D. in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA (with Jay Keasling)
  • Postdoctoral training in Biochemistry, University of Washington, WA (HHMI and Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fellow)

Summary

Prior to joining at the DOE JGI, Yasuo was a co-founder and Chief Science Officer at a clean technology start-up, Bio Architecture Lab, Inc. (BAL) where his significant achievement was using synthetic biology to develop the first microbial platform technologies enabling to unlock the potential of macroalgae as highly environmentally sustainable and cost-effective biomass for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. The development of this technology allowed the company to raise $40 million from private funding sources, receive prestigious national grants and build a commercial partnership with leading companies in the oil and chemical industries. The work also led to several high impact scientific publications.  Yasuo’s research focus is to discover novel secondary metabolites and to study their roles in microbial-microbial and plant-microbial communications in various environments. He is currently developing design principles, tools, and methodologies to mine and characterize novel secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways and component enzymes by leveraging on the DOE JGI’s unique resources and capabilities.

Awards

  • SIMB Young Investigator Award 2013
  • Sustainable Biofuels Awards, Green Shoots Award 2012
  • Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund, Fellow 2007-2008

Selected Publications

  1. C. N. S. Santos et. al., Engineering complex biological systems in bacteria through recombinase-assisted genome engineering. Nature Protocols, 9, 1320-1336 (2014)
  2. M. Enquist-Newman et. al., Efficient ethanol production from brown macroalgae sugars by a synthetic yeast platform, Nature, 505, 239-243 (2014)
  3. C. N. S. Santos et. al., Implementation of stable and complex biological systems through recombinase-assisted genome engineering, Nature Communications, 4, 2503 (2013)
  4. A. J. Wargacki et. al., An engineered microbial platform for direct biofuel production from brown macroalgae, Science, 335, 308-313 (2012)
  5. Y. Yoshikuni et. al., Designed divergent evolution of enzyme function, Nature, 440, 1078-1082, (2006)