Li Lab
Principal Investigator: Han Li
Institution: University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
There is an unmet need to obtain natural product-derived medicines in a scalable and reliable manner. Natural products are small molecules produced by biological systems, but often in low quantities. Synthetic biology promises to move the biosynthetic pathways of these medicinal small molecules from their native producers into heterologous hosts such as bacteria and yeast or into a bioreactor, so that large-scale, low-cost, industrial processes can be developed to produce them. The long-term goal of my research program is to address the ultimate challenge in chemical biosynthesis, namely to precisely control the flow of electrons, carbon, and energy. Over the past five years, we have made substantial strides toward this goal, by establishing unnatural electron currency which operates in parallel to Nature's universal cofactor. This design is inspired by Nature: Catabolism and anabolism, two opposing metabolic systems responsible for breaking down and building up cell components, respectively, are insulated from each other because they each have a designated redox cofactor, NAD and NADP, respectively. We have demonstrated that our unnatural cofactor can indeed precisely channel redu…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM153401-03: Expanding the Metabolic Currencies of Life (2026)
- 5R35GM153401-02: Expanding the Metabolic Currencies of Life (2025)
- 1R35GM153401-01: Expanding the Metabolic Currencies of Life (2024)
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