School of Chemical Engineering Graduate seminar series Prof. Kyungbum Lee Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering Tufts University "Metabolic Network Analysis in Biotechnology and Biomedicine" Tuesday, April 7, 2015 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: We are interested in the study of cellular metabolism and its role in shaping biological function. Central to our research is the idea that metabolism involves the concerted actions of many enzymes, reactants, and products that together form a complex reaction network. This presentation focuses on network models of metabolism as an analysis framework, with examples drawn from two ongoing projects. The first example describes a dynamic model of CHO cell metabolism in fed batch culture, which is used to identify potential cell and process modification targets for productivity improvement. The second example describes a graph model of a microbial community, which is used to identify bioactive bacterial metabolites present in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Bio: Kyongbum Lee is currently Professor and Chair of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department and Program Director for Bioengineering for the School of Engineering at Tufts University. He was a Visiting Faculty Member at the Obesity Research Center of Boston University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Tufts University as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2002. Dr. Lee obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering with a minor in applied mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1995. His research interests are metabolic engineering, tissue engineering, metabolomics, and systems biology. Honors include a Mellon Foundation Research Semester Fellowship, Jay Bailey Young Investigator Award for Best Paper in Metabolic Engineering, Invitation to National Academies Keck Futures Conference, and Tufts University Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award. He has served as a guest editor for Advances in Biochemical Engineering, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, and Current Opinions in Biotechnology. He has held elected positions of Division Director and Area Program Chair for the Food, Pharmaceutical Bioengineering Division of the AIChE. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metabolites, Adipocytes, and Technology.
