Sang-Yup+Lee
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Prof. Lee Appointed to Advisory Board of the U.S. Joint BioEnergy Institute
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, has been appointed as a member of the scientific advisory board of the Joint BioEnergy Institute under the wing of the U.S. Department of Energy, university authorities said on Monday (Aug. 4).
The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is a scientific partnership in the San Francisco Bay area, California, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Its partner organizations include the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California in Berkeley, UC Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
JBEI
2008.08.07 View 11634 -
KAIST Professors Article Featured as Cover Thesis of Biotechnology Journal
An article authored by a research team of Prof. Sang-yup Lee at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Jin-Hwan Park at the KAIST Institute for the BioCentury has been featured as the cover thesis of the August 2008 issue of Trends in Biotechnology.
The paper, titled "General strategy for strain improvement by means of systems metabolic engineering," focuses on the application of systems biology for the development of strains and illustrates future prospects. Trends in Biotechnology, published by Cell Press, is one of the most prestigious review journals in the field.
Jin-Hwan Park, the primary author of the research thesis, said that the KAIST team"s research work was expected to provide substantial help to researchers involved in biotechnology industry.
The strategy has been established on the basis of the experiences gained in the actual microbial production process using the systems biology methods which his research team has recently worked on, Prof. Park said.
2008.07.24 View 13818 -
KAIST, GS Caltex Jointly Develop New Bacteria to Produce Biobutanol
KAIST and GS Caltex, Korea"s second-largest refiner, have jointly developed a new strain of bacteria to produce biobutanol, which is regarded as a promising next-generation biofuel, KAIST authorities said on Monday (June 2).
A research team led by Prof. Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department and researchers of GS Caltex succeeded in developing an improved strain of bacteria which enables to produce a large amount of biobutanol in the process of fermenting biomass. The research team has applied for international patent for the new technology.
Biomass refers to living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. It usually refers to plant matter grown for use as biofuel, but it also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibers, chemicals or heat.
In the 1970s and 1980s when scientists began researching the possibilities of alternative fuels, bacteria were used in the process of fermenting biomass. This ABE (acetone, butanol, ethanol) fermentation process yields butanol, acetone, and ethanol in a ratio of 6:3:1, respectively. Acetone produced in this process is not usable.
The newly developed technology to produce biobutanol has an advantage of lowering production cost by eliminating the process to separate acetone from butanol. This has been made possible by improving the bacteria used for the fermentation in metabolic engineering terms, and producing butanol and ethanol only in a ratio of 6:1, while curbing the generation of acetone.
In comparison with bioethanol, also a biofuel mixture which is currently under widespread use in some countries, butanol is more easily transported with gasoline and diesel through pipelines because of its lower tendency to separate from the fuel when contaminated with water. Butanol is also less corrosive than ethanol, another reason its transport through pipeline is preferable.
Global interest in full utilization of biomass and development of other alternative energy including biobutanol has deepened in recent years, as crude oil prices have skyrocketed to record levels and climate changes resulting from the excessive use of fossil fuel have been causing various problems around the world.
2008.06.04 View 11715 -
International Science Journal Spotlights Korean Biotechnology
Biotechnology Journal published by German-based Wiley-VCH, one of the world"s major scientific and technical publishers, devoted its entire special edition for May to biotechnology in Korea.
The monthly journal"s special issue was planned by KAIST Professor Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department who is one of the journal"s two editors-in-chief.
The special issue outlines the current status and future prospect of biotechnology in Korea, and presents five review papers and eight original papers by leading Korean biotech researchers to showcase recent developments in Korean biotechnology. Among these papers, a review by Dr. Byung-Hwan Hyeon and his colleagues describes in detail the Korean biotechnology strategies represented by "Bio-Vision 2016," and another by Dr. Ji-Hyun Kim and his collaborators presents recent progress in microbial genome projects in Korea.
In the editorial of the journal, Prof. Lee said, "Heavy industry and IT industry have been the two drivers of Korean economic growth. Korea is now considering biotechnology as its next generation growth engine."
Underscoring the growing importance of fusion research, he mentioned that integration of biotechnology with information technology and nanotechnology is advancing rapidly in Korea. Another special edition of Biotechnology Journal focusing on these exciting biotech developments in Korea is planned for the future.
2008.05.20 View 12840 -
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee Co-Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology Journal
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee of KAIST"s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been appointed as co-editor-in-chief of Biotechnology Journal published by Wiley-VCH, a German-based leading technical publisher, university authorities said Tuesday, April 15.
Launched in January 2006, Biotechnology Journal has covered biological process, brain ailments, biological medicine, protein design and other applied bio-sciences.
Starting in May, Lee will be responsible for setting and overseeing editorial direction of the journal along with Prof. Alois Jungbauer of Austria.
Professor Lee has been gaining recognition in and outside the country for his research on metabolic engineering. In 2002, he was chosen as one of Asia"s next generation leaders by the World Economic Forum. In 2007, Lee was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world"s largest general scientific society. He is also serving as an editorial member of more than ten international journals including Biotechnology & Bioengineering.
Awards and honors include the First Young Scientist"s Award from the President of Korea, the Scientist of the Month Award from the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology, the Best Patent Award from Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Citation Classic Award from ISI, USA, and the First Elmer Gaden Award (1999 Best Paper Award) from Biotechnology and Bioengineering (John Wiley & Sons, USA) at the ACS National meeting.
2008.04.16 View 12809 -
KAIST Holds Symposium on Metabolic Engineering
The KAIST Institute for Bio-Century held a symposium on metabolic engineering at the auditorium of the KAIST"s Applied Engineering Bldg. on Thursday, Feb. 14, in cooperation with the BK21 Chemical Engineering Research Team.
The symposium focused on researches on bio-refinery program and bio-energy production in connection with steep hikes in oil prices and worsening environmental problems, including global warming.
Seven Korean experts presented their views on metabolic engineering strategies to effectively produce bio-energy and biofuel and the latest research trends.
Among the speakers, Prof. Lee Sang-yup, co-head of the KAIST Institute for Bio-Century, spoke on the theme of "Metabolic Engineering for Bio-refinery and Bio-energy.
The symposium provided an opportunity to take a glimpse into the latest research trends of metabolic engineering technology. Metabolic engineering technology is crucial to producing chemicals, energy and other substances from renewable biomass materials in a departure from heavy reliance on crude oil.
2008.02.14 View 12611
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Maximum Yield Amino Acid-Producing Microorganism Developed with use of System Biotechnology
Maximum Yield Amino Acid-Producing Microorganism Developed with use of System Biotechnology
A team led by Sang-Yup Lee, a distinguished professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and chair professor of LG Chemical, has succeeded in developing maximum yield L-valine-producing microorganism by using System Biotechnology methods. The research results will be published at the April fourth week (April 23 - 27) edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the USA.
Prof. Lee’s team has developed maximum yield amino acid-producing microorganism (target substance of L-valine, an essential amino-acid) by using microorganism E cell system and simulation methods.
His team produced initial producing microorganism by selectively operating necessary parts in colon bacillus genome and excavated preliminary target gene which is to newly be operated through transcriptome analysis using DNA chips. Then they performed a great amount of gene deletion experiment on computer by using MBEL979, E-cells of colon bacillus, and excavated secondary engineering targets. And they finally succeeded in developing maximum yield valine-producing microorganism that can extract 37.8 grams of valine from 100 grams of glucose by applying experiment results to the actual development of microorganism so as to achieve the optimization of metabolic flux in cells,
Prof. Lee said, “Since successfully used for the development of microorganism on a systematic system level, system biotechnology methods are expected to significantly contribute to the development of all biotechnology-relevant industries. At the beginning, we had huge obstacles in fusing IT and BT, but my team mates cleverly overcame such obstacles, hence I’m very proud of them.” The producing microorganism and its developing methods are pending international applications (PCT).
2007.04.26 View 13572 -
KAIST Names Three Distinguished Professors
KAIST Names Three Distinguished Professors
- Three professors having achieved world’s distinguished research and education performances- Special incentives and non full-time position after retirement age to be offered
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) has named three Distinguished Professors, the most honorable positions in KAIST, for the first time in its history.
The three professors are Choong-Ki Kim, Dep. of Computer Science, Sang-Yup Lee, Dep. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Kee-Joo Chang, Dep. of Physics.
Professor Kim has made significant contributions to the advancement of Korea’s semiconductor field. He developed and put into a practical use ‘CCD Imaging Element’, a core technology in the multimedia era and the most widely used imaging sensor, for the first time in the world. He also promoted special education programs with industrial bodies such as Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, etc. to improve industry-academy cooperation programs of KAIST. In recent years, he is showing passionate activities for the development of KAIST, such as genius education, interdisciplinary education by the Graduate School of Culture Technology, and experiment education for undergraduate students. He received Hoam Prize in 1993 and the Order of Civil Merit Moran Medal in 1997, and is an IEEE fellow and the former Vice-president of KAIST.
Professor Lee has showed outstanding performances in the field of Metabolic Engineering. He discovered the genome sequences of bacteria for the first time in the world and published a paper regarding his discovery applied to metabolic engineering technologies at Nature Biotechnology in 2004. He also published a 78-page paper, evaluated as the bible of prteomics, at the 70 years long Microbiology and Molecular Biology Review (MMBR). His research performances are 187 domestic and international papers, 203 patent applications, Young Scientist Award, 212 invited lectures from home and abroad, etc.
Professor Chang has published about 200 papers in the field of Sold-State Physics and presented diverse theory models regarding semiconductor materials, his major research fields, at review articles, textbooks, academic conferences, etc. Particularly, he found out the essences of DX defects in GaAs semiconductors, a problem that had remained unsolved more than 10 years, and his paper on this has been cited so far more than 500 times. Professor Chang, named as one of the Nation’s Great Scholars in 2005, has 15 papers as cited more than 100 times and records the number of citation indexed by SCI at 4,847, third place among all scientists in Korea.
Distinguished Professors are the most honorable positions in KAIST, and only professors achieving world’s distinguished research and education performances can be Distinguished Professors. Being Distinguished Professors demands recommendations from President, Vice-president, Deans of College, and Department Heads and favorable evaluations by domestic and overseas professionals. Distinguished Professors will be offered special incentives and appointed as non full-time faculty even after their full retirement age.
KAIST will hire outstanding human resources in highly promising research fields through its novice systems including Distinguished Professors System, etc. to build and retain world’s best faculty.
2007.03.19 View 14368
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Professor Sang-Yup Lee Senior Editor of U.S. Biotechnology Journal
Professor Sang-Yup Lee Named Senior Editor of U.S. Biotechnology Journal
Will supervise paper examination in the fields of system biology, system bioengineering and
metabolic engineering, and set editing direction
Professor Sang-Yup Lee, LG Chemical’s Chair-Professor and the leader of BK project group of KAIST Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, was named senior editor of Biotechnology Journal published by the U.S. Wiley-VCH.
Professor Lee will supervise paper examination in the fields of system biology, system bioengineering and metabolic engineering, and set and manage the editing direction of the journal.
‘Biotechnology Journal’ was first published in January 2006 to exchange rapidly-exchanging knowledge and information in life science and its relevant fields by Wiley, a world-famous science journal publisher with the history of 208 years (founded in 1799). Particularly, ‘Biotechnology Journal’ is a new-typed scientific journal treating various fields such as life science research-relevant ethics and cultures necessary for general people as well as expertise research information of life science.
“Although taking charge of editing of many scientific journals spends much time, it’s very fruitful that I’ll lead the direction of research papers of many world-famous scientific journals and I can make efforts to prevent outstanding papers by Korean scientists from being disadvantaged,” said Professor Lee.
“More Korean scholars are taking charge of editing jobs of world-famous scientific journals. It’s a good indication that the capacities of Korean science and engineering have been enhanced significantly as much,” a staff of KAIST PR team said.
Meanwhile, Professor Lee, distinguished by outstanding research performances in the fields of metabolic engineering and system life engineering, is now ▲associate editor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, top scientific journal of biotech engineering published by the U.S. Wiley ▲editor of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology published by German Springer ▲ associate editor of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering by German Springer, and editing member of ▲ Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology by Singapore’s World Scientific ▲ Asia Pacific Biotech News ▲ Biochemical Engineering Journal, Metabolic Engineering, and Microbial Cell Factory by Elsevier.
2007.02.02 View 13997
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Professor Sang-Yup Lee publishes a requested paper in Nature Biotechnology
Professor Sang-Yup Lee publishes a requested paper in Nature Biotechnology
“The era of commercialized bioplastic is coming”
Disclose an opinion as specialist at a requested paper in Nature Biotechnology, October 2006
A team led by Barbel Friedrich, Professor of Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, and Alexander Steinbuchel, Professor of West falische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster, found out the entire genome sequence of the typical bioplastic-producing microorganism ‘Ralstonia eutropha’ and published a paper on it in Nature Biotechnology, October 2006. As the entire genome sequence of the typical bioplactic-producing microorganism has been discovered, it is expected that the efficient production of bioplastic will be available through strain improvement at a more systematic level.
Regarding this paper, Nature Biotechnology requested world-renowned scholar Sang-Yup Lee, LG Chemical Chair-Professor of KAIST Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, an expert analysis on the future of bioplastic production as a result of the deciphering of the genome sequence, and Professor Lee revealed his opinion at ‘News and Views’ in Nature Biotechnology, October 2006, issued on October 10. In the analysis, he insisted, “The deciphering of the genomes of Ralstonia means to pave the way for the improvement of strains at a system level by combining simulation through various omics and imaginary cells and engineering at a genome level. It will be possible to produce plastic with desired properties by altering the components of plastic as desired and produce bioplastic, more efficient and economical than have been reported so far, through the optimization of metabolic flow.”
Professor Lee is a world-renowned scholar in the bioplastic field, who has presented about 70 SCI papers in the field. He created a word ‘Plastic Bacteria’ at Trends in Biotechnology in 1996 and published an expert paper regarding E.Coli Plastic at Nature Biotechnology in 1997. He is now performing a research concerning the improvement of bioplastic-producing strains as an example of a research employing a systematic method for the system biological research and development project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The followings are the contents of Professor Lee’s paper concerning microorganism plastic published at ‘News and Views’ in Nature Biotechnology, October 2006.
- Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a high molecule that numerous microorganisms accumulate in their own cells as energy storage substance when they are rich in carbonic resources, but poor in the other growth factors. The PHA high molecule is polyester, in which the unit substances (unit chemicals) are ester-bonded, and has been studied worldwide about twenty years before. However, PHA’s worse properties than petrochemical plastic and extremely high production cost have prevented its commercialization. The production cost of PHA was 15 dollars per kg in 1980’s, twenty times higher than the price of polypropylene. Sang-Yup Lee, LG Chemical Chair-Professor of KAIST Chemical & Biomolecular Department’s BK21 Project Group, has performed a research concerning the efficient production of microorganism plastic through the combination of metabolic engineering and fermentation process under the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and developed a process that lowers the production cost of PHA to 2-3 dollars per kg. He also has developed PHA-producing bacteria, efficient enough to fill plastic tightly, and named it ‘Plastic Bacteria’.
- The unprecedented rise of oil price for the past two years activated the researches on Bio-based energies and chemical production globally. PHA is also regaining attentions although the researches on it have been withered so far due to its poor economical efficiency and properties. The result of the genome deciphering of the typical plastic-producing microorganism ‘Ralstonia eutropha’ published by a German research team in Nature Biotechnology, October 2006 suggests huge meanings. That is, it will provide a blueprint over the metabolic activities of the bacteria and thus enables more systematic strain improvement.
- Eyeing on these facts, Nature Biotechnology requested Professor Sang-Yup Lee an expert analysis, and Professor Lee analyzed that there would be a dramatic development of microorganism plastic production through the application of the system biological engineering method, which is now being performed actively by Professor Lee at KAIST. In the analysis, Professor Lee revealed, “As the genome sequence has been found out, it becomes possible to establish metabolic network at a genome level, and since simulation becomes available, numberless trial and errors and experiments can be replaced with imaginary experiments rapidly. In addition, It makes the more efficient development of strains possible by fusion-analyzing the omics result such as various transcripts, proteins, metabolites, etc.” He also expected that it would be possible to produce tailor-made PHA having desired properties through metabolic engineering as well as the efficient production of plastic. Besides, he prospected that his research on the production of optically pure hydroxyl carboxyl acid, Professor Lee’s international patent right, would gain driving forces and technical development would be made rapidly at biological hydrogen production, production, dissolution and application of aromatic compounds, etc. by featuring this strain.
- Recently, Metabolic and ADM, U.S. companies, jointly started to produce PHA at a commercialization level, and Brazil having rich natural resources is commercializing PHA, following Bio-ethanol. In addition, Japan and Germany having a bunch of research performance in this field, and Australia having rich biomass are also performing consistent researches on PHA’s commercialization. Professor Lee prospected, “With the finding out of the genome sequence of the typical bioplastic-producing microorganism, competition for commercialization will be fiercer among nations through the development of efficient production systems.”
- Professor Lee prospected that as the efficient production of PHA becomes possible, the production of plastic from various renewable ingredients (cellurose, starch, suger, etc.) through microorganism fermentation would be made practically and the white biotechnologies of existing chemicals would gain more power. He also said, “Korea also will have to try to secure the production technologies and industry of Bio-based chemicals through strategic cooperation with resource powerfuls, etc. on the basis of the technical dominancy in some system metabolic engineering fields.”
- ‘News and Views’ in Nature Biotechnology is a section that publishes analyses of world-renowned specialists in the corresponding fields over the contents of some papers having great influences among papers published in the issue. KAIST Professor Sang-Yup Lee has published his second expert analysis of ‘Deciphering bioplastic production’ in the volume of October 2006, following the first paper ‘Going into the era of E.Coli plastic’.
2006.10.23 View 14976