Prof. David H. SHERMAN, a distinguished expert in the field of synthetic biology, was invited to the “2016 International Expert Forum” of the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences on Oct 21. On the forum, he delivered a lecture entitled “Problems, Progress and Holy Grails in Natural Product Services”. In his lecture, Prof. SHERMAN introduced the relationship between the structure and mechanism of biosynthetic P450 enzymes and the molecular mechanism of polyketide synthases. In addition, he introduced a number of major challenges in this field including the industrialization of enzyme reaction and exploration of new natural product biosynthetic pathways. He also shared his research experiences and gave valuable advice regarding applying for studying abroad with young scientists and graduate students of QIBEBT. 

Prof. SHERMAN, from the College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, specializes in natural product biosynthesis, synthetic chemistry, molecular enzymology and drug development. Due to his outstanding contributions in these areas, Prof. SHERMAN received numerous honors and awards including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from American Chemical Society (ACS), the Charles Thom Award from Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) and others. 

Prof. LI Shengying, the leader of Enzyme Engineering Group at QIBEBT and the director of Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, hosted this lecture. This visit is expected to facilitate potential collaborations between University of Michigan and QIBEBT. 

Contact: 

Dr. XIN Hongchuan 

Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Email: xinhc@qibebt.ac.cn