Awards

International Metabolic Engineering Award

The International Metabolic Engineering Award is intended to recognize an outstanding career contributor to the field of Metabolic Engineering. The International Metabolic Engineering Society at its bi-annual conference gives the Award.

2018 Recipient: Jack Pronk, Delft University of Technology

Jay Bailey Young Investigator Award in Metabolic Engineering

This award was instituted in honor of Jay Bailey, a visionary of future directions in biotechnological research and a brilliant contributor to the founding and advancement of the field of metabolic engineering. The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding research accomplishments in the field of metabolic engineering by a young investigator. The recipient will have advanced the frontiers of metabolic engineering through originality and creativity of experimental or computational concept application. Previous recipients of the award are Borodina Irina (2016) and Hal Alper (2014).

2018 Recipient: Adam Feist, Project Scientist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Poster Awards

Congratulations to all award winners!

RUNNER-UP (Kindle and $250 Cash prize Sponsored by Biotechnology Journal by IMES) 

• So Young Choi, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Structure of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Synthase Reveals the Mechanisms of Polyester Biosynthesis

• Marcos Hamborg Vinde, University of Queensland 

Characterization of Different Electron Transfer Modules in a Light-Driven P450 Fusion Enzym

RUNNER-UP (€200 Book certificate Sponsored by Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering Journal and Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology and $250 Cash prize Sponsored by IMES 

• Makoto A. Lalwani, Princeton University

Engineering Optogenetic Circuits to Dynamically Control Cellular Metabolism for Chemical Production

•  Huadong Peng, Monash University

Enhanced Production of High-Value Cyclopropane Fatty Acid in Yeast Cells Engineered for Increased Lipid Synthesis and Accumulation

RUNNER-UP Sponsored by Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering Journal and Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology/ IMES ($250 Cash prize)

•  Benedikt Wynands, RWTH Aachen University

Production of Tyrosine-Derived Aromatics Using Pseudomonas Taiwanensis VLB120

•  ​John M. Billingsley, University of California, Los Angeles

Engineering Saccharomyces cerevisiae for Production of Iridoids

RUNNER-UP Sponsored by Processes ($250 Cash)

•   R. Kyle Bennett, University of Delaware

 Engineering Phenotypic Improvements of Synthetic Escherichia coli methylotrophs through Metabolic Engineering and Directed Evolution.           

•   Jasmine M. Bracher, Delft University of Technology

 Optimization of L-Arabinose Transport in S. Cerevisiae for Ethanol Production from Lignocellulosic Hydrolysates

TOP AWARD PRIZE ($500 Cash Prize Sponsored by Biochemical Engineering Journal)

•   Anne Sofie L. Hansen, Technical University of Denmark

A Universal Methyltransferase Growth Coupling System for Evolutionary Enzyme, Pathway and Host Engineering

TOP AWARD PRIZE ($500 Cash Prize Sponsored by Microbial Cell Factories)

•   Thomas Gassler, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria

 A Synthetic Yeast for Efficient Assimilation of Carbon Dioxide

TOP AWARD PRIZE ($500 Cash Prize Sponsored by Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology Journal)

•   Lara Sellés Vidal, Imperial College London

A Novel Selection System for Ultra High-Throughput Screening of a Broad Class of Enzymes

TOP AWARD PRIZES ($500 Cash Prize sponsored by ACS Synthetic Biology)

•   Erik Hanko, University of Nottingham

 An Itaconic Acid-Inducible Gene Expression System for High-Throughput Microbial Strain Development

•   Christopher Mehrer, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Anaerobically Autoinduced Fatty Alcohol Production in Escherichia coli

TOP AWARD PRIZE ($500 Cash Prize Sponsored by Bioengineering)

•   Nico J. Claassens, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology

Towards a Formate Bio-Economy: Establishing the Reductive Glycine Pathway in Cupriavidus necator

OVERALL TOP AWARD PRIZE ($1,000 Cash Prize Sponsored by IMES Journals)

• Tridweep Kumar Sahoo , Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

  Production of D-Lactic Acid from Whey in Serial Cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Engineered Lactococcus lactis

Select Pos ter Awards are generously supported by the following Journals: