Wenjun Zhang

Research Expertise and Interest

chemical biology, microbiology, natural product biosynthesis, enzyme discovery and characterization, drug discovery

Research Description

Wenjun Zhang is the Charles R. Wilke Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering and a professor in the College of Chemistry. Her lab is interested in biomolecular engineering for applications in bioenergy and medicine. Their research themes include genome mining for new bioactive small molecule and enzyme discovery, understanding the intriguing enzymology and programming rules underlying natural product biosynthesis, designing pathways toward combinatorial natural product biosynthesis, probing the activity and/or function of natural products, and developing new research toolkits to promote the aforementioned research. Their approach combines principles in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, chemical biology, protein engineering, and metabolic engineering.

In the News

Bakar Fellows Program Names Seven New Spark Award Recipients

From artificial ligaments and a novel approach to cancer treatment to “soft” batteries and a way to give voice to silent speech, new innovations from UC Berkeley faculty are getting a big vote of support from the Bakar Fellows program. Seven faculty members have been selected to receive the 2022 Bakar Fellows Spark Award, which is designed to accelerate faculty-led research and produce tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.

Sloan Foundation honors eight young faculty members

Eight UC Berkeley assistant professors are among 126 new fellows announced today by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Sloan Research Fellowships, awarded annually since 1955, honor early-career scientists and scholars.

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