Dr. Seunghyun Ryu

Dr. Seunghyun Ryu is currently a Research Assistant Professor in The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). She earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Ajou University in South Korea, a MA degree in Biochemistry at Korea University and Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in South Korea, and a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech University with Prof. M Nazmul Karim. After her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Nils Kröger at Georgia Institute of Technology and later joined Trinh lab at UTK as a postdoctoral researcher and then a research scientist. Before returning to UTK as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr. Ryu worked as a research scientist at CJ America. Currently she is a visiting scholar in Prof. Arkin’s laboratory at The University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are in the areas of protein engineering, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology. Dr. Ryu has research expertise in protein and strain engineering, and has experience working with bacteria, yeast, diatom, and mammalian cell lines including non-model organisms. In addition to performing research, Dr. Ryu also serves as a project manager in Trinh lab for DOE and industry-funded projects.

Professor Cong Trinh

Professor Trinh is currently a Ferguson Faculty Fellow in The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering from The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities under guidance of Prof. Friedrich Srienc. He then worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Profs. Douglas Clark and Harvey Blanch at The University of California, Berkeley. In Spring 2023, Prof. Trinh is a visiting scholar in Prof. Arkin’s laboratory at The University of California, Berkeley. Trinh’s research interests are in areas of systems and synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, biochemical engineering, microbial and viral physiology. His research aims to fundamentally understand complex cellular systems and develop novel experimental and computational tools to control these systems for biotechnological applications with 3 research thrusts. Thrust 1 is to develop a transformative technology, MODCELL (Modular Cell), to engineer modular (chassis) cells for rapid development of novel microbial biocatalysts for industrial biocatalysis. Thrust 2 is to develop a transformative ViPaRe (Virulent Pathogen Resistance) technology to effectively combat rapidly evolving and resistant pathogens. Thrust 3 is to understand mechanisms of cellular robustness against environmental and genetic perturbations and develop effective defensive tools to boost cellular robustness for applications from disease prevention to novel biocatalysis. Trinh serves as a PI of several single and collaborative funded projects including the NSF CAREER award for development of the MODCELL technology and the DARPA’s FYA and Director Fellowship for development of the ViPaRe technology. He is an active member of AIChE, SBE, ACS, SIMB, and IMES.
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1GZXQDEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Shunsuke Yamazaki (Shun)

Shunsuke Yamazaki (Shun)

As of 2020, Shunsuke is at the Research Institute for Bioscience Products and Fine Chemicals, Kawasaki, Japan,