Research Expertise and Interest

photosynthesis, Metabolic Engineering, synthetic biology, bioproduction R&D

Research Description

Anastasios Melis is a distinguished professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology.  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and holds the Grace Kase and Harry Tsujimoto Endowed Chair at UC Berkeley. 

Expertise of the Melis lab is in the field of photosynthesis. They work with land plants, microalgae, cyanobacteria, and non-oxygenic (anaerobic) photosynthetic bacteria. Their platform includes most aspects of photosynthesis, beginning with organism cultivation, the efficiency of light absorption and utilization, electron transport and biochemical energy generation, and chloroplast and cellular metabolism. Included are the biophysics and biochemistry of the process, the molecular biology and genetics of the organisms, as well as scale ups in the cultivation of the various organisms for product generation. The concept of Photosynthetic Bioproducts, envisioned within the lab, entails the direct application of photosynthesis for the generation of high-value chemicals and proteins, in a process where a single organism acts both as photocatalyst and processor, synthesizing and secreting ready to use product.