ZHEN CHEN   Associate Professor    Tel：+8610 62772130   Mail：zhenchen2013@tsinghua.edu.cn

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Professor Chen’s group devotes to develop key enabling technology of synthetic biology by integrating computational biology, protein engineering, systems biology and metabolic engineering; especially we are developing new industrial chassis for accelerated bioproduction, non-natural metabolic pathways for value-added products, protein-engineering approaches to obtain new functional enzymes, new approaches for system-level strain optimization. These technologies have been integrated for the development of industrial strains for the production of bulk chemicals such as C2-C6 diols, amino acids, and healthcare products. 

●  Education & Professional Career

2001-2005  Department of Chemical Engineering，Tsinghua University        Bachelor

2005-2008  Department of Chemical Engineering，Tsinghua University / Department of Biological Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology               Master

2008-2012  Hamburg University of Technology       PhD

2012-2013  Hamburg University                    Postdoc

2013-2017  Department of Chemical Engineering，Tsinghua University  Assistant Professor

2017-now  Department of Chemical Engineering，Tsinghua University  Associate Professor 

● Research Interest

Metabolic Engineering、Synthetic Biology、Protein Engineering

● Selected Publications

1. Zhong W, Zhang Y, Wu W, Liu D, Chen Z*. Metabolic engineering of a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway for the de novo production of 1, 3-propanediol from glucose. ACS Synth. Biol. 2019, 8（3）：587-595.

2. Wu W, Zhang Y, Liu D, Chen Z*. Efficient mining of natural NADH-utilizing dehydrogenases enables systematic cofactor engineering of lysine synthesis pathway of Corynebacterium glutamicum. Metab. Eng. 2019, 52, 77–86.

3. Wu W, Zhang Y, Huang J, Wu Y, Liu D, Chen Z*. Discovery of a Potentially New Subfamily of ELFV Dehydrogenases Effective for l‐Arginine Deamination by Enzyme Mining. Biotechnol J.  2018, 13 (2), 1700305.

4. Zhang Y, Liu D, Chen Z*.  Production of C2–C4 diols from renewable bioresources: new metabolic pathways and metabolic engineering strategies. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2017, 10, 299.

5. Huang J, Wu Y, Zhang Y, Wu W, Liu D, Chen Z*. Cofactor recycling for co-production of 1,3-propanediol and glutamate by metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum. Scientific reports 2017, 7, 42246.

6. Chen, Z.*, Huang, J., Wu, Y., Wu, W., Zhang, Y. & Liu, D. Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid from glucose and xylose. Metab. Eng. 2017, 39, 151–158.

7. Chen Z*, Huang J, Wu Y, Liu DH. Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the de novo production of ethylene glycol from glucose. Metab. Eng. 2016, 33, 12-18.

8. Chen Z, Zeng AP*. Protein engineering approaches to chemical biotechnology. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 2016, 42, 198-205.

9. Chen Z*, Liu DH. Toward glycerol biorefinery: metabolic engineering for the production of biofuels and chemicals from glycerol. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2016, 9 (1), 205.

10. Chen Z, Geng F, Zeng AP. Protein design and engineering of a de novo pathway for microbial production of 1, 3‐propanediol from glucose. Biotechnol J. 2015, 10（2）：284-289.

11. Bommareddy RR, Chen Z, Rappert S, Zeng AP. A de novo NADPH generation pathway for improving lysine production of Corynebacterium glutamicum by rational design of the coenzyme specificity of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Metab Eng. 2014, 25:30-37.

12. Chen Z， Rappert S， Zeng AP. 2015. Rational Design of Allosteric Regulation of Homoserine Dehydrogenase by a Non-Natural Inhibitor L-Lysine. ACS Synth. Biol. 4（2）：126-131.

13. Chen Z， Bommareddy R, Frank D, Rappert S， Zeng AP. 2014. Deregulation of Feedback Inhibition of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase for Improved Lysine Production in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Appl Environ Microbiol 2014, 80：1388-1393.

14. Chen Z, Meyer WQ, Rappert S, Sun JB, Zeng AP. 2011. Coevolutionary analysis enabled rational deregulation of allosteric enzyme inhibition in Corynebacterium glutamicum for lysine production. Appl Environ Microbiol 2011, 77:4352-4360.

15. Chen, Z., Wilmanns, M. & Zeng, A. P. Structural synthetic biotechnology: From molecular structure to predictable design for industrial strain development. Trends in Biotechnol 2010, 28, 534–542.