LAUSR

Designing robust biocatalysts and producing pharmaceuticals, renewable and environmentally friendly energy products, materials and chemicals are the leading research areas nowadays for sustainable socio-economic development. While metabolic science offers remarkable potential for deciphering molecular mechanism to develop robust biocatalysts, either microbial strains or enzymes, bioprocess engineering seeks to explore their potential for large scale production at low cost. The International Conference on Metabolic Science (ICMS 2016) was held on October 20–23, 2016 in Shanghai, China, with the theme “Metabolic Science: Driving Bioindustry and Beyond” to provide a platform for the world’s leading scientists, young scholars, graduates and entrepreneurs to network, and exchange up-to-date progress for addressing common challenges. At the opening ceremony, Prof. Zixin Deng, Chair of ICMS 2016, and Prof. Ho Nam Chang, Former President of AFOB, warmly welcomed about 450 participants from more than 20 countries. The first plenary lecture session was opened with the lecture “Upgrading wastes for food, fuels and chemicals production via metabolic engineering”, which was presented by Gregory Stephanopoulos, who is a world leading scientist in metabolic science, Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and the Editor-in-Chief of Metabolic Engineering and Current Opinion in Biotechnology. The 2nd lecture was presented by Jens Nielsen, Professor at the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering and Head of the Division of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in which he addressed how to model Saccharomyces cerevisiae at the genome-scale to explore the huge potential of this species in developing cell factories to produce various products. The 3rd lecture was given by Sang Yup Lee, Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, BioProcess Engineering Research Center, and the Bioinformatics Research Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, in which the production of bio-based natural and non-natural polyesters by systems biology and metabolic engineering was highlighted and their applications were prospected. The session was closed with the lecture presented by Ying-Jin Yuan, Pro fessor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, China, who, as the Director of the MOE Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering, is leading the artificial synthesis of Chrs V and X of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the Synthetic Yeast Genome Project (Sc2.0), the first attempt to synthesize a eukaryotic cell genome in the world that is collectively undertaken by laboratories at prestigious universities and research institutes in the USA, UK, China and