Foo Jee Loon
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Principal Investigator, NUS SynCTI
Tel: +65 6601 2449
Email: bchfjl@nus.edu.sg

What are your present research interests?

My present research lies in synthetic biology, particularly the engineering of microbes for sustainable production of valuable chemicals and synthetic genomics.

Do you have a distinctive viewpoint to your research?

Coming from a background in organic chemistry, I approach biological questions from a chemistry viewpoint. My team and I hope to provide refreshing perspectives to biology and stimulate different ways to understand and solve biological problems.

What do you see as your future research directions?

We aim to work at the interface of chemistry and biology to develop customized microbes for applications in synthetic biology, including microbial cell factories for producing fine chemicals and therapeutic compounds.

Does your laboratory have a particularly strong research expertise?

We have expertise in reprogramming of microbes to confer novel functionalities through genome engineering and metabolic engineering.

Recent Publications

1. Foo, J. L. & Chang, M. W. Synthetic yeast genome reveals its versatility. Nature 557, 647 (2018).
2. Foo, J. L., Susanto, A. V., Keasling, J. D., Leong, S. S. & Chang, M. W. Whole-cell biocatalytic and de novo production of alkanes from free fatty acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 114, 232 (2017).
3. Foo, J. L., Jensen, H. M., Dahl, R. H., George, K., Keasling, J. D., Lee, T. S., Leong, S. & Mukhopadhyay, A. Improving microbial biogasoline production in Escherichia coli using tolerance engineering. MBio 5, e01932 (2014).
4. Foo, J. L. & Leong, S. S. Directed evolution of an E. coli inner membrane transporter for improved efflux of biofuel molecules. Biotechnol. Biofuels 6, 81 (2013).