Jin-Ho Seo, Ph.D.

Professor in Department of Food Science & Biotechnology, Seoul National University

Contact:

Seoul National University

Department of Food Science & Biotechnology

Seoul 151-742, Korea

Positions

Dr. J. Seo started his academic career at Seoul National University, Korea. He received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1976 and an M.S. degree in Biological Engineering in 1978. In 1985, he got his ph.D. degree in chemical engineering at California Institute of Technology, USA. He worked as assistant professor in School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, USA for 4 years. Dr. Seo has been working as a professor in the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Seoul National University since 1990. From 1997 until 1999 he was Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Seoul National University. Also, he was Dean of Research Affairs from 2008 to 2010. In the year 2008, Dr. Seo served as President of the Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Research Activities

Dr. J. Seo was involved in metabolic engineering of microorganisms for production of biochemicals and functional food materials. His research was dedicated to production of biofuels and value-added compounds using metabolically engineered microorganisms such as bioethanol, biobutanol, human milk oligosaccharides, 3-hydorxypropionic acid, resveratrol, xylitol. He is also engaged in analyzing and optimizing recombinant cell fermentation processes for production of industrial enzymes and pharmaceutical proteins in recombinant Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He has published more than 230 research papers and held 32 international and Korean patents.

Awards

Dr. J. Seo is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

He received the Dupont Science and Technology Award in 2011 for contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases. He also received the Excellence in Research Award by the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was awarded “the Best Paper Award” by the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies.

Production of bio-based materials using microbial factory technology

Jin-Ho Seo, Ph.D

Professor

Department of Agriculture Biotechonology and Center for Food and Bioconvergence

Seoul National University

E-mail : jhseo94@snu.ac.kr

Microbial factory technology (MFT) is composed of engineering of the key metabolic pathways, enforcement of cofactor biosynthetic capacity and global optimization from genetic modification at a gene level to fermentation strategies at a process scale. Microbial factory technology has been used to produce many value-added compounds from biomass including xylitol, coenzyme Q10, erythritol and resveratrol. This presentation is focused on production of fucosyllactoses in engineered Escherichia coli and of 2,3-butanediol in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Fucosyllactoses are the most abundant oligosaccharide in human milk and have the potential to modulate the gut microbial flora and to enhance the immune responses. 2,3-Butanediol is a platform chemical with various industrial applications.