Research Interests
Understanding, monitoring, and modulating T cell function. T cells play pivotal roles in human adaptive immune response and have been implicated in a wide array of diseases, such as autoimmunity, allergy, cancer, and infectious diseases, as well as vaccine design and evaluation. The research goal is to harness the immunological power of T cells to fight cancer and infections and to control their undesired behaviors associated with autoimmunity and allergy. To achieve this goal, my group focuses on developing molecular engineering tools, such as protein-based nanoparticles, multiplexed T cell functional marker biosensor, and synthetic gene/antigen delivery viral particles.

Producing sustainable biofuels using engineered microbes. My group is also interested in engineering microbes that are capable of converting lignocellulosic biomass to alternative biofuels, such as ethanol. The focus here is biomass-degrading enzyme activity engineering with the aim of identifying protein mutants that could break down biomass efficiently. Meanwhile, microbial metabolic engineering is employed with the aim of improving the biofuel yield and titer.