Preliminary Technical Program for ME16

Sunday, June 15, 2025

15:15-15:30

Opening Remarks

15:30-16:00

Keynote 1
Christopher Voigt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

16:00-16:30

Lightning Session 1: New Frontiers of Metabolic Engineering
Chairs: Verena Siewers, Chalmers University of Technology & Pavel Dvořák, Masaryk University

Introduction by Session Chairs

Single-Cell Biosensor Analysis Reveals Metabolic Subpopulations As Sources of Production Heterogeneity
Juline Savigny, Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Engineering Microbes to Create and Harness Non-Standard Amino Acids
Aditya Kunjapur, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Single Distal Mutation Enhances Activity of Known Petases Via Stabilisation of PET-Binding
Xiaozhi Fu, Chalmers University of Technolgoy, Gothenburg, Sweden

Metabolite-Responsive Scaffold RNAs for Dynamic CRISPR Transcriptional Regulation of Metabolic Pathways
Mark Blenner, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Boosting Carbon Yield of Bioprocesses Via Synthetic Chemolithoheterotrophy
Daniel Bergen, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

16:30-17:00

Break

17:00-18:00

Session 1: Metabolic Engineering for Biofuels and Biochemicals
Chairs: Elke Nevoigt, Constructor University Bremen & Gyoo Yeol Jung, Pohang University of Science and Technology

Finding the Right Substrate for Microbial Oleochemical Synthesis
Brian Pfleger, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

Myth or Reality? Achieving Simultaneous Co-Utilization of Multiple Sugars for Producing Cellulosic Biofuels, Chemicals, and Food Ingredients
Yong-Su Jin, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL; DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

From Systems Biology to Metabolic Engineering of Eubacterium Limosum for the Conversion of Methanol and CO2 to C4 Chemicals
Philippe Soucaille, TBI, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France

18:00-18:30

Rapid Fire Session 1: 1-20
Chairs: Rajib Saha, University of Nebraska-Lincoln & Kevin Solomon, University of Delaware

18:30-21:00

Poster Session 1A
Opening Reception sponsored by Wuhan Hesheng Technology Co., Ltd

Monday, June 16, 2025

8:30-9:30

Session 2: Metabolic Engineering for Health
Chairs: Ji-Sook Hahn, Seoul National University & Mattheos Koffas, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Elucidation of the Final Steps of Taxol Biosynthesis Leads to Its Biotechnological Production
Sotirios Kampranis, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Hovedstaden, Denmark

9:30-10:00

10:00-10:30

Break

10:30-11:30

Session 3: Metabolic Engineering for Food and Feed Ingredients and Agriculture
Chairs: Elena Brevnova, Aise Bio, UK & Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Imperial College London

Title To Be Announced
Kevin Vestrepen, KU Leuven

Computational Design of Regulation in Interacting Soil Bacilli
Jae Sung Cho, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

12:00-13:00

Lunch

14:30-15:30

Session 4: Metabolic Engineering for Gas Fermentation
Chairs: Lars Nielsen, University of Queensland & Adam Thompson, LanzaTech

Omics and Chemostats: Essential Tools to Improve Gas-Fermenting Microorganisms
Esteban Marcellin, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Electro-Biodiesel Empowered By Synthetic Biology Design and Redox Balance Regulation
Susie Dai, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Coupling Growth of E. coli to Novel Modules of Synthetic CO2 Fixation Cycles.
Helena Schulz-Mirbach, Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany

15:30-16:00

Lightning Session 2
Chairs: Birgitta Ebert, University of Queensland & Antonius van Maris, KTH

Metabolic Regulation of Acetyl-CoA and NADPH Production Pathways in Rhodotorula Toruloides
Alina Rekena, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

Engineering Phase Separation in Cyanobacteria for Metabolic Pathway Optimization
Bruno Rojas, KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Efficient Production of Itaconic and Lactic Acid from the Single Carbon Substrate Methanol with Engineered Komagataella Phaffii
Diethard Mattanovich, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria

Mechanisms of Plastic Fragmentation into Nanoparticles and Metabolism of Bioavailable Plastic Derivatives By Wastewater Comamonas
Ludmilla Aristilde, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

The Molecular Dynamics of Electron Flows of Synechocystis in Biophotovoltaics
Bin Lai, BMBF junior research group Biophotovoltaics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

16:00-16:30

Break

16:30-17:30

Session 5: Metabolic Engineering for Plastic Recycling
Chairs: Carrie Eckert, Oak Ridge National Laboratory & Pablo Ivan Nikel, DTU

Open Loop Recycling Using Engineered Microbes
Lars M. Blank, iAMB - Institute of Applied Microbiology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, NRW, Germany

Title To Be Announced
George Guo-Qiang Chen, Tsinghua University

Metabolic Engineering of Pseudomonas sp. LFM046 Producing Polyhydroxyalkanoates from Different Renewable Sources
Juliana Cardinali-Rezende, Center for Natural and Human Sciences - CCNH / Genetics and Metabolic Engineering Lab (LGEM), Federal University of ABC, Santo André, Brazil

17:30-18:00

Rapid Fire Session 2: 21-40
Chairs: Julie Ming Liang, Opera Biosciences & Eric Young, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

18:00-21:00

Poster Session 2A & Reception

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

8:30-9:05

Greg Stephanopolous Award Lecture

9:05-10:10

Session 6: Emerging Tools and Strategies of Metabolic Engineering
Chairs: Michael Bott, Forschungszentrum Jülich & Yaojun Tong, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Title To Be Announced
Xiaozhuo Luo, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology

Synthetic Microbial Communities for Improved Bioproduction
Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Development of a Colorimetric Platform for High-Throughput Screening of Aromatic Polyketide Overproducers
Dongsoo Yang, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, Republic of (South)

10:05-10:35

Break

10:35-12:00

Session 7: Modeling, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence
Chairs: Feiran Li, Tsinghua University & Aleksej Zelezniak, Chalmers University of Technology

A Method for Massive, High-Diversity, and Full-Length Enzyme Sequence-Fitness Data Collection for Machine Learning-Aided Enzyme Engineering
Jinbei Li, Bjarke Erichsen and Simon Krarup, Enzidia, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark

Catpred: A Comprehensive Framework for Deep Learning in Vitro Enzyme Kinetic Parameters
Costas D. Maranas, Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

12:00-13:00

Lunch

Ticketed Events - Copenhagen Tours

**Pre-Registration Required! Make sure to register for only 1 tour when you register, if you need to add-on or change your tour contact customerservice@aiche.org.

8:30-9:30

Session 8: Metabolic Engineering of Cyanobacteria and Plant Cells
Chairs: Paul Hudson, KTH & Bin Lai, UFZ Helmholtz 

Metabolic Rewiring for Efficient Co-Utilization of CO₂ and Lignocellulosic Sugars in Sustainable Chemical Production
Shota Atsumi, University of California Davis

Enhanced Production of Aromatic Compounds By Controlling Cell Division in Cyanobacteria
Tomohisa Hasunuma, Engineering Biology Research Center, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan; Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS), RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan

Integrative Metabolic Engineering of Cyanobacteria for Carbon Fixation and Water Conservation
Pengfei Xia, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, China

9:30-10:00

Keynote 3
Metabolic Engineering for Scale
Nelson Barton, Genomatica

10:00-10:30

Break

10:30-11:35

Session 9: Biomanufacturing: From Lab to Industry
Chairs: Vratislav Stovicek, Arxada & Michael Koepke, LanzaTech

Human Milk Oligosaccharides: Biological Solutions for a Growing Health Market
Katja Parschat, R&D, Chr. Hansen HMO GmbH (part of Novonesis), Rheinbreitbach, Germany

Food for Thoughts for Prospective Biomanufacturing
Ralf Takors, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

12:00-13:30

Lunch & Networking

13:30-15:00

Session 10: Start-Up Pitch Competition Final
Chairs: Claudia Vickers, BioBuilt Solutions and Queensland University of Technology & Markus Herrgård, BioInnovation Institute

15:00-15:45

Break

15:45-17:15

ME16 Award Ceremony
International Metabolic Engineering Award Lecture
James E. Bailey Award
Poster Awards

19:00-22:00

Conference Banquet

Thursday, June 19, 2025

9:00-10:00

Session 11: Evolutionary Protein and Strain Engineering
Chairs: Adam Feist, University of California San Diego & Ditte Hededam Welner, DTU

AI-Powered Evolutionary Strategies for Protein and Strain Engineering
Huimin Zhao, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

Engineering Yeast for Bio-Based Production: Insights from Adaptive Laboratory Evolution and Robustness Quantification
Nathália Vilela, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

10:00-10:30

Break

10:30-11:30

Session 12: Metabolic Engineering for Biochemicals and Biomaterials
Chairs: Kayla Nemr, Geno & Si Jae Park, Ewha Womans University

Metabolic Engineering for Microbial Production of High-Molecular-Weight, High-Performance Materials
Fuzhong Zhang, Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

Development of Recombinant Platforms for the Production of Protein-Based Biopolymers from Various Carbon Sources Including Plastic Waste
Mattheos Koffas, Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

12:00-12:15

Closing Remarks

IMES Early Career Researchers Workshop