Chen Yang

The Yang lab aims to understand and manipulate the operation of metabolic networks in microbes. The scientific goal of our research is to provide a quantitative understanding of how genes, proteins, and metabolites interact to generate and regulate functional metabolic networks. To achieve it, we develop experimental techniques for metabolic flux analysis, quantitative metabolomics, and gene expression analysis. Mathematical models are used to interpret the large sets of data within a rigorous metabolic network. We also develop comparative genomic methods for reconstruction of metabolic pathways and transcriptional regulons. Our research focuses on solvent-producing clostridia and cyanobacteria. Research interests include: (i) development of metabolic flux analysis techniques; (ii) regulation and control of metabolic fluxes in microbes; (iii) metabolic engineering of microbes for production of biochemicals.