Contact Information
University of Illinois
215 RAL, Box C-3
600 S. Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Biography
Dr. Huimin Zhao is the Steven L. Miller Chair Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, professor of chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), director of NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis (moleculemaker.org), NSF iBioFoundry (ibiofoundry.illinois.edu), and NSF Global Center for Reliable and Scalable Biofoundries, and Editor in Chief of ACS Synthetic Biology. He received his B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1992 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Dr. Frances Arnold. Prior to joining UIUC in 2000, he was a project leader at the Industrial Biotechnology Laboratory of the Dow Chemical Company. He was promoted to full professor in 2008. Dr. Zhao has authored and co-authored over 460 research articles and over 30 issued and pending patent applications. In addition, he has given over 520 plenary, keynote, or invited lectures. Thirty-eight (38) of his former graduate students and postdocs became professors or principal investigators around the world. Dr. Zhao received numerous research and teaching awards and honors such as AIChE Daniel I.C. Wang Award, AIChE FP&B Division Award, ECI Enzyme Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, and SIMB Charles Thom Award. His primary research interests are in the development and applications of synthetic biology, machine learning, and laboratory automation tools to address society’s most daunting challenges in health, energy, and sustainability.
Research Interests
Synthetic biology; AI/ML; automation; natural product biosynthesis; protein engineering; metabolic engineering; genome engineering; directed evolution
Research Description
Zhao group develops and applies synthetic biology, machine learning, and laboratory automation tools to engineer functionally improved or novel proteins, pathways, and genomes for biotechnological and biomedical applications. In parallel, Zhao group investigates the protein structure-function relationship, cell metabolism, and mechanisms of gene expression and regulation. The current research program in Zhao grouo centers on four distinct yet related areas, including foundational tool development, drug discovery and development, industrial biotechnology, and mammalian synthetic biology.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Steven L. Miller Chair, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Professor, Bioengineering
Professor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
Affiliate, Chemistry
Professor, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Recent Publications
Baby, A., Asserghine, A., Gao, E., Zhao, H., & Rodríguez-López, J. (2025). A simple room-temperature refurbishment method for sulfated lead-acid batteries using ammonium acetate treatment. Journal of Power Sources, 627, Article 235812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2024.235812
Dong, J., Croslow, S. W., Lane, S. T., Castro, D. C., Blanford, J., Zhou, S., Park, K., Burgess, S., Root, M., Cahoon, E., Shanklin, J., Sweedler, J. V., Zhao, H., & Hudson, M. E. (2025). Enhancing lipid production in plant cells through automated high-throughput genome engineering and phenotyping. The Plant cell, 37(2), Article koaf026. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koaf026
Kim, M. S., Shi, L., Zhao, H., & Huber, G. W. (2025). Production of a δ-Lactam from Glucose through Integrating Biological and Chemical Catalysis. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 13(6), 2380-2387. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c08177
Tan, S. I., Liu, Z., Tran, V. G., Martin, T. A., & Zhao, H. (2025). Issatchenkia orientalis as a platform organism for cost-effective production of organic acids. Metabolic Engineering, 89, 12-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2025.02.003
Upadhyay, V., Li, H., He, J., Ocampo, B. E., Cook, S., Zhao, H., & Maranas, C. D. (2025). Combining Chemical Catalysis with Enzymatic Steps for the Synthesis of the Artemisinin Precursor Dihydroartemisinic Acid. ACS synthetic biology, 14(4), 1112-1120. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.4c00707