报告题目：Lignin Bioengineering for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts （木素生物工程用于发展生物燃料和产品）
　　报告人：Dr. Fang Chen （陈方博士）
　　来自美国北德克萨斯大学生物系（Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton）和美国橡树国家实验室能源中心（Department of Energy, BioEnergy Sciences Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge）
　　报告时间：2014年11月11日下午15:00
　　报告地点：制浆造纸工程国家重点实验室306室

制浆造纸工程国家重点实验室

2014年11月10日

　　内容介绍：
　　Lignins are complex biopolymers derived from phenylpropanoid monomers, 4-hydroxycinnamyl alcohols. Lignin occurs mostly in vessels, tracheids, and fibrous tissues of vascular plants where they rigidify and strengthen the cell walls to provide mechanical support and enhance water transport. Lignin interferes with biomass saccharification, and contributes significantly to the recalcitrance of the biomass. Large-scale implementation of advanced biofuel refinery will result in the availability of large volumes of lignin that is currently underutilized and undervalued. Bioengineering of lignin to produce desirable lignin structure which reduce recalcitrance of the cell walls to bioprocessing and facilitate high value by-product production will greatly improve biorefinery viability. Recent studies demonstrated the great flexibility of lignification in plant cell wall. I will provide a brief overview of recent development of lignin biosynthesis, approaches for lignin modification in transgenic plants to overcome the recalcitrance barrier and discuss examples of novel lignins with potential uses for the production of biomaterials like carbon fibers and other high value products.
　　报告人介绍：
　　Dr. Fang Chen is a Research Profess in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, and a Principal Investigator at BioEnergy Sciences Center supported by the Department of Energy, USA. He received his Bachelor’s and Doctoral degrees in Chemical Engineering, major in pulping and papermaking engineering, from the South China University of Technology, China, and postdoctoral training at Nagoya University, Japan and Noble Foundation, Oklahoma, USA.  Dr. Chen’s research includes lignin biosynthesis and bioengineering, lignin chemistry, metabolic engineering of plant natural product pathways for agricultural and industrial utilization. He is an expert in plant cell wall biosynthesis and manipulation, has many year of experience in genetic engineering lignocellulosic biomass for the improvement of forage and bioenergy feedstock. More recently his research has led to the discovery of a serial of novel lignins in various plants. Dr. Chen’s work has been published on Science, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS, Plant Cell and other international journals, and he is currently an associate editor of Bioenergy Research.