Special Talent：
Address：38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, China 300350
Telephone：
Email：yujieyuan@nankai.edu.cn
Research Group Website：https://www.x-mol.com/groups/Yuan_yujie?lang=en
Research Interest：1）Synthetic biology；2）Natural product genome mining；3）New-to-nature biosynthesis；4）Automation and high-throughput；5）Machine learning/AIHistory
Education and Professional experience：
2010－2014, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang, China, B.S.
2014－2016, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China (Advisor: Prof. Tian-Gang Liu), M.S.
2016－2019, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China (Advisor: Prof. Tian-Gang Liu), Ph.D.
2020－2021, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China (Advisor: Prof. Zi-Xin Deng), Post-doctoral Fellow
2021－2026, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (Advisor: Prof. Huimin Zhao), Post-doctoral Fellow
2026－present, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Principal investigator (PI)
Honors and Awards
Scientific Achievements & Selected Publications
Dr. Yuan’s major research interests focus on developing innovative synthetic biology technologies through interdisciplinary approaches, including automated high-throughput platforms (BioFoundry), AI/machine learning, and novel new-to-nature enzymatic reactions, to enable the efficient discovery and intelligent creation of bioactive natural products for biopharmaceutical research and applications. As first author and/or corresponding author (including co-first/co-corresponding author), Dr. Yuan has published multiple papers in journals including Nature Catalysis (2 papers), Nature Communications, and Cell Systems, and has been granted multiple invention patents.
Representative Publications:
1. Yujie Yuan#, Shu Cheng#, Guangkai Bian#, Pan Yan, Zhengning Ma, Wen Dai, Rong Chen, Shuai Fu, Huiwen Huang, Haoming Chi, Yousheng Cai, Zixin Deng and Tiangang Liu*. Efficient exploration of terpenoid biosynthetic gene clusters in filamentous fungi. (2022) Nature Catalysis, 5, 277–287.
2. Yujie Yuan#, Maolin Li#, Wesley Harrison, Zhengyi Zhang, Huimin Zhao*. Harnessing Photoenzymatic Reactions for Unnatural Biosynthesis in Microorganisms. (2026) Nature Catalysis, 9, 62–72.
3. Yujie Yuan#, Chunshuai Huang#, Nilmani Singh, Guanhua Xun, Huimin Zhao*. Self-resistance Gene-guided, High-throughput Automated Genome Mining of Bioactive Natural Products from Streptomyces. (2025) Cell Systems, 16, 101237.
4. Xixi Sun#, Yujie Yuan#, Qitong Chen#, Shiqi Nie, Jiaxuan Guo, Zutian Ou, Zixin Deng, Tiangang Liu*, Tian Ma*. Multienzyme assembly mediated by docking domains from type I modular polyketide synthases. (2022) Nature Communications, 13, 5541.
5. Maolin Li, Yujie Yuan, Wesley Harrison, Zhengyi Zhang, Huimin Zhao*. Asymmetric Photoenzymatic Incorporation of Fluorinated Motifs into Olefins. (2024) Science, 385(6707), 416-421.
6. Yujie Yuan, Chengyou Shi, Huimin Zhao*. Machine Learning-enabled Genome Mining and Bioactivity Prediction of Natural Products. (2023) ACS Synthetic Biology, 12 (9), 2650–2662.
Professional Cultivation
The research group plans to recruit 2- Ph.D. students and 2- M.S. students each year, and welcomes recommended students from both within and outside the university, as well as direct Ph.D. candidates. We warmly welcome undergraduate students, master’s students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers with backgrounds in microbiology, chemistry, chemical biology, bioinformatics, and related fields to join the group.
