Lab Introduction

My name is CHENG Kuan-Chen, receiving my Ph.D. degree in agricultural and biological engineering at Penn State University in 2010. I have more than 25 years of research experience in the areas of microbial bioprocessing and fermentation. Precision fermentation is a technology that produces specific ingredients using biosynthesis engineering from microorganisms. The specific gene fragments will be constructed as the plasmid or inserted into genomic DNA with unnecessary genes knockout in the host microbe. And therefore, most of the nutrients ingested by the host will be converted to the target product during fermentation. Biosynthesis engineering has been developed for many years, but it has progressed rapidly in recent years because of a novel technology- CRISPR technology. CRISPR presents accurate and rapid gene editing ability for microorganism genomic DNA. Furthermore, CRISPR also provides various advantages such as easy to use, low cost, and no need for too complex or expensive instruments leading to becoming the popular technology of gene editing for precision fermentation. Until now, precision fermentation has drawn attention due to its sustainable, eco-friendly, low land use capability, and high production efficacy, and it has been applied in the food industry, medical industry, and specialty chemicals production. However, it still needs to combine with other technology to improve its efficacy in industrial applications. Our team’s current research topics are related to biotechnology and agricultural resources, focusing on the utilization of agricultural materials, microbial screening and breeding, and the development of functional food. Current research projects include (1) Sustainable green energy and cold plasma technology, (2) Development of biomaterials, (3) High-value agricultural materials and under-forest economy, (4) Continuous bioconversion by the immobilized system, and (5) Precision health and healthcare biotechnology.