About

Professor Yong-Su Jin is a faculty member in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on molecular and systems biotechnology, with specific involvement in areas such as bioenergy and bioproducts. He is associated with the Molecular and Systems Biotechnology Laboratory and collaborates with various postdoctoral researchers and graduate students working on projects related to photosynthetic efficiency and bioenergy. His contributions include advancing understanding in these fields through his leadership and research activities at the university.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Microbiology
• Food science
• Organic chemistry
• Stereochemistry
• Chromatography
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Identification of the enantiomeric nature of 2-keto-3-deoxy-galactonate in the catabolic pathway of 3,6-anhydro-l-galactose

  Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology · 2023 · 1 citations

  • Stereochemistry
  • Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  DOI

• Production of Ethyl-agarobioside, a Novel Skin Moisturizer, by Mimicking the Alcoholysis from the Japanese Sake-Brewing Process

  Marine Drugs · 2023 · 2 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Chromatography
  • Organic chemistry

  Agarobiose (AB; d-galactose-β-1,4-AHG), produced by one-step acid hydrolysis of agarose of red seaweed, is considered a promising cosmetic ingredient due to its skin-moisturizing activity. In this study, the use of AB as a cosmetic ingredient was found to be hampered due to its instability at high temperature and alkaline pH. Therefore, to increase the chemical stability of AB, we devised a novel process to synthesize ethyl-agarobioside (ethyl-AB) from the acid-catalyzed alcoholysis of agarose. This process mimics the generation of ethyl α-glucoside and glyceryl α-glucoside by alcoholysis in the presence of ethanol and glycerol during the traditional Japanese sake-brewing process. Ethyl-AB also showed in vitro skin-moisturizing activity similar to that of AB, but showed higher thermal and pH stability than AB. This is the first report of ethyl-AB, a novel compound produced from red seaweed, as a functional cosmetic ingredient with high chemical stability.

  DOI

• TaxiBGC: a Taxonomy-Guided Approach for Profiling Experimentally Characterized Microbial Biosynthetic Gene Clusters and Secondary Metabolite Production Potential in Metagenomes

  mSystems · 2022 · 10 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computational biology
  • Biology

  Currently available bioinformatics tools to identify BGCs from metagenomic sequencing data are limited in their predictive capability or ease of use to even computationally oriented researchers. We present an automated computational pipeline called TaxiBGC, which predicts experimentally characterized BGCs (and infers their known SMs) in shotgun metagenomes by first considering the microbial species source. Through rigorous benchmarking techniques on simulated metagenomes, we show that TaxiBGC provides a significant advantage over existing methods. When demonstrating TaxiBGC on thousands of human microbiome samples, we associate BGCs encoding bacteriocins with different human body sites and diseases, thereby elucidating a possible novel role of this antibiotic class in maintaining the stability of microbial ecosystems throughout the human body. Furthermore, we report for the first time gut microbial BGC associations shared among multiple pathologies. Ultimately, we expect our tool to facilitate future investigations into the chemical ecology of microbial communities across diverse niches and pathologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Strain engineering and metabolic flux analysis of a probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii for metabolizing l-fucose, a mammalian mucin component

  Microbial Cell Factories · 2022 · 20 citations

  • Microbiology
  • Biology
  • Biochemistry

  BACKGROUND: Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast that exhibits antimicrobial and anti-toxin activities. Although S. boulardii has been clinically used for decades to treat gastrointestinal disorders, several studies have reported weak or no beneficial effects of S. boulardii administration in some cases. These conflicting results of S. boulardii efficacity may be due to nutrient deficiencies in the intestine that make it difficult for S. boulardii to maintain its metabolic activity. RESULTS: To enable S. boulardii to overcome any nutritional deficiencies in the intestine, we constructed a S. boulardii strain that could metabolize L-fucose, a major component of mucin in the gut epithelium. The fucU, fucI, fucK, and fucA from Escherichia coli and HXT4 from S. cerevisiae were overexpressed in S. boulardii. The engineered S. boulardii metabolized L-fucose and produced 1,2-propanediol under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. It also produced large amounts of 1,2-propanediol under strict anaerobic conditions. An in silico genome-scale metabolic model analysis was performed to simulate the growth of S. boulardii on L-fucose, and elementary flux modes were calculated to identify critical metabolic reactions for assimilating L-fucose. As a result, we found that the engineered S. boulardii consumes L-fucose via (S)-lactaldehyde-(S)-lactate-pyruvate pathway, which is highly oxygen dependent. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in which S. cerevisiae and S. boulardii strains capable of metabolizing L-fucose have been constructed. This strategy could be used to enhance the metabolic activity of S. boulardii and other probiotic microorganisms in the gut.

  DOI

• Sustainable Lactic Acid Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2021 · 157 citations

  • Pulp and paper industry
  • Biotechnology
  • Environmental science

  Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock for sustainable biofuels and bioproducts. Among emerging bioproducts, lactic acid has attracted significant interest because of its growing application in many industries (e.g., packaging, medical, and pharmaceutical). In this study, BioSTEAM—an open-source platform—was leveraged for the design, simulation, and evaluation (via techno-economic analysis, TEA, and life cycle assessment, LCA) of lignocellulosic lactic acid biorefineries. With a minimum product selling price (MPSP) between 1.38 and 1.91 kg^–1 (5th–95th percentiles, baseline at 1.57 kg^–1), the biorefinery was capable of producing market-competitive lactic acid (market price between 1.7 and 2.1 kg^–1), and its performance could be further enhanced (e.g., MPSP down to 1.09 kg^–1, global warming potential of 2.79 kg CO₂-eq·kg^–1, and fossil energy consumption of 31.7 MJ·kg^–1) with advancements in key technological parameters (fermentation yield and separation process conversions) and optimization in process operation. Sensitivity analyses focused on the fermentation unit (across titer, yield, and productivity; neutral vs low-pH fermentation) and feedstock characteristics (carbohydrate content and price) were also included to quantify their impact on the sustainability of the biorefinery. Overall, this research highlights the ability of agile TEA/LCA to screen promising biorefinery designs, prioritize research needs, and establish a road map for the continued development of bioproducts and biofuels.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Eun Ju Yun

  Catholic University of Korea

  4 shared

• Kyoung Heon Kim

  Korea University

  3 shared

• Dong Hyun Kim

  Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong

  2 shared

• Sora Yu

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  2 shared

• Jeffrey G. Pelton

  QB3

  2 shared

• Won‐Jae Chi

  1 shared

• Jing‐Jing Liu

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  1 shared

• Na Jung Park

  Korea University

  1 shared

Labs

• Jin lab in FSHN @ UIUCPI

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Jiawei Hanh-146
• Maria T. Grosse Perdekamph-141
• Gan Zhangh-134
• Jeffrey S. Mooreh-130
• Shuming Nieh-128