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[ November 11, 2019]
Lipid metabolism in the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
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- Speaker:
- Yonghua Li
- Date:
- Nov. 18, 2019
- Time:
- 3:00-4:30pm
- Location:
- Room 210, COE Building No.1
- Host:
- Jin Liu
- Abstract
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Microalgae are fast-growing microorganisms that have developed efficient mechanisms to harvest and transform solar energy into energy-rich molecules such as lipids. They are thus potentially great renewable cell factories for production of fuels and biomaterials for the chemical industries. However, several biological as well as engineering challenges need to be addressed before the establishment of a profitable algal industrial biotechnology. The main goal of Li-Beisson’s laboratory is to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in the conversion of solar energy and atmospheric CO2 to energy-dense compounds such as oil and hydrocarbon. The molecular limitations of these mechanisms are assessed and novel strategies are proposed for synthetic biology of microalgae. The further use of this knowledge will aid in the design and creation of strains for algal biotechnology. In this communication, she will present current projects and highlight major findings from her group.
- Biography
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Prof. Yonghua Li-Beisson is a distinguished biologist with research interests focusing on lipid metabolism. She received her Ph.D. (2002; supervisor: Prof. Colin Ratledge) from University of Hull, England followed by a postdoctoral training (Supervisor: Prof. John Ohlrogge) at Michigan State University, USA. Since 2009, Dr. Li-Beisson has been a Principal Investigator at The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France. She has served on the editorial boards of the Plant Cell, New Phytologist, Plant Cell and Physiology, and mSphere. She has also served as the chair of several international conferences such as The 14th International Lipidomics Meeting “Biogenesis and fate of lipid droplets” (2018) and European Symposium on Plant Lipids (2019). Dr. Li-Beisson works on lipid metabolism and has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in top journals including PNAS and Plant Cell.