Advisory Board and Editors Synthetic Biology
Gary M. Wessel
Professor of Biology in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University.
Michael Wink
Prof. Dr. Michael Wink is Professor of Biology and Director at the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology of Heidelberg University; Head of Biology Department (1989-2019). Senior professor since 2019. Editor of Diversity, Biotechnology Journal and Journal of Ornithology. Member of several editorial boards and scientific societies. Author of over 20 books and over 900 original peer-reviewed publications.
Xiaofeng Xin
Xiaofeng Xin is a research scientist working in the Broad Technology Labs developing novel next-generation sequencing library preparation methodologies, which aim to reduce cost and input materials. He came to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2015 after completing his postdoc at MIT, where he studied type 2 diabetes using a systems biology approach.
Xin received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto; during the course of his doctoral studies, he worked as a visiting scientist in the Vidal Lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
He has extensive research experience in genomics, functional genomics, systems biology, synthetic biology, molecular biology, yeast genetics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics.
Chris M Yeager
I am a broadly-trained microbiologist with a research background in molecular biology, microbial ecology, genomics and biogeochemistry. Over the past 12 years I have served as a Staff Scientist within the Department of Energy National Laboratory system, first in the Environmental Biotechnology Section at Savannah River National Laboratory (2005-2011) and then in the Biosciences and Chemistry Divisions at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2011-current). As a staff scientist, I developed and managed a variety of research programs, focusing on microbial communities involved in processes relevant to climate change, fate and transport of radionuclides in the environment and bioenergy production. I received a BS degree from the University of Wyoming in Biochemistry, after which I worked as a laboratory technologist at the University of Utah and the VA medical center in Salt Lake City, UT with a team investigating the molecular underpinnings of diabetes. I received my doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Oregon State University in 2001 under Drs. Daniel Arp and Peter Bottomley investigating biodegradation of toxic compounds, such as trichloroethylene and toluene, by soil microorganisms. I completed postdoctoral training (2001-2004) at Los Alamos National Laboratory under Dr. Cheryl Kuske examining how the microorganisms that build and maintain biocrusts in soils of arid environments might respond to climate change.
Hai Yu
I’m Project Scientist at University of California, Davis. My research interests focus on developing novel chemoenzymatic methods for efficient synthesis of biologically important complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates; exploring substrate specificities of glycosyltransferases and other carbohydrate biosynthetic enzymes; as well as analyzing, purifying, and characterizing carbohydrates and glycoconjugates.