Research Bio

Wenjun Zhang is a chemical and biological engineer whose research investigates natural product biosynthesis, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology. She is best known for studies of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides, engineering microbial systems to produce bioactive compounds with pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. Zhang’s lab integrates biochemistry, genetics, and bioengineering to uncover new natural products and reprogram biosynthetic pathways. Her research advances the development of novel antibiotics, anticancer agents, and sustainable chemicals.

She is Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. Her research has been published in Nature Chemistry, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Journal of the American Chemical Society. Zhang has received the Pew Scholar Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. At Berkeley, she teaches biochemical engineering, mentoring students in natural product discovery and engineering.

Research Expertise and Interest

chemical biology, microbiology, natural product biosynthesis, enzyme discovery and characterization, drug discovery, human microbiome, specialized metabolism