Wei Niu

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Wei Niu

Associate Professor Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Contact

Address
OTHM B205L
Phone
402-472-5348 On-campus 2-5348
Email
wniu2@unl.edu

Experience

  • 2021-present    Associate Professor, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UNL.
  • 2015-2020        Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UNL.
  • 2010-2015         Research Assistant Professor, Department of Chemsitry, UNL.
  • 2007-2010        Senior Scientist, Genomatica Inc (http://www.genomatica.com).
  • 2005-2007        Senior Research Scientist, Biotechnology Development Center, Cargill Inc (http://www.cargill.com).

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

  • Apply metabolic engineering principles and synthetic biology tools to the microbial synthesis of industrial or other value-added chemicals from renewable feedstocks.
  • Develop new enzyme catalysts and auxiliary functional proteins for efficient and green synthesis of pharmaceutical precursors and energy molecules.

In the News: Powered by the 

Jun 07, 2021: Fifteen engineering faculty promoted or granted tenure

Nov 12, 2018: Wei Niu receives NSF grant to work on biocatalytic reduction of carboxylic acids

Mar 29, 2017: New approach improves potential HIV vaccine

Education

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D. Bioorganic Chemistry, Michigan State University
  • M.S., Biophysics, Tsinghua University
  • B.S., Chemistry, Tsinghua University

Certifications

  • PhD

Personal Links:

• iGEM
• Research Group
• Google Scholar
 

Professional Memberships:

• American Chemical Society
• Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology

Funding

  • National Science Fundation, CBET-1805528

Selected Publications

  • 1. Niu, W.*; Willett, H.; Mueller, J.; He, X.; Ma, B.; Guo, J. “Direct biosynthesis of adipic acid from lignin-derived aromatics using engineered Pseudomonas putida KT2440” Metabolic Engineering 2020, 59, 151-161.
  • 2. Wang, N.; Shang, X.; Cerny, R.; Niu, W.*; Guo, J.* "Systematic Evolution and Study of UAGN Decoding tRNAs in a Genomically Recoded Bacteria" Scientific Reports 2016, 6, 21898.
  • 3. Niu, W.*; Guo, J.* “Stereospecific Microbial Conversion of Lactic Acid into 1,2-Propanediol” ACS Synth. Biol. 2015, 4, 378-382.
  • 4. Wang, N.; Ju, T.; Niu, W.; Guo, J.  “Fine-tuning Interaction between Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase and tRNA for Efficient Synthesis of Proteins Containing Unnatural Amino Acids” ACS Synth. Biol. 2015,4, 207-212.
  • 5. Niu, W.; Schultz, P. G.; Guo, J. “An Expanded Genetic Code In Mammalian Cells With a Functional Quadruplet Codon” ACS Chem. Biol. 2013, 8, 1640-1645. (This article was ranked as second most read article in May; podcast interview with the journal)
  • 6. Yim, H.*; Haselbeck, R.*; Niu, W.*; Pujol-Baxley, C.*; Burgard, A.*; Boldt, J.; Khandurina, J.; Trawick, J. D.; Osterhout, R. E.; Stephen, R.; Estadilla, J.; Teisan, S.; Schreyer, H. B.; Andrae, S.; Yang, T. H.; Lee, S. Y.; Burk, M. J.; Van Dien, S. “Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for direct production of 1,4-butanediol” Nat. Chem. Biol. 2011, 7, 445-452.  (* co-first authors;  This work won the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 2011.)

Recent Presentations

  • 249th ACS National Meeting, 2015, Denver, CO. "De novo biosynthesis of 1,2-propanediol from renewable feedstock through lactic acid."