Dr. Hongwei Yu , a tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, paid a visit to IHB during September 17 and 18, 2014.

Dr. Hongwei Yu , a tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, paid a visit to Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) during September 17 and 18, 2014. On Sep. 17th, he delivered a lecture with the title of “Regulation of the exopolysaccharide alginate biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa” to the audience of faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at IHB.  

In his presentation, Dr. Yu firstly emphasized that bacterial biofilm formation is a major cause of chronic diseases and clinical infections. A hallmark of clinical biofilms in Cystic Fibrosis is the overproduction of a capsular polysaccharide called alginate. Then he talked about what we know about the regulation and production of alginate with the focus on the signal transduction pathways. In the end, he said that alginate is also a useful biopolymer with pharmaceutical applications and the commercialization of bacterial alginate. 

Dr.Yu is also the Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Progenesis Technologies, LLC, a biotechnology startup that specializes in the use of genetic engineering to render bacteria a microbial cell factory for the production of useful biopolymers.