James C. Liao (
Chinese: 廖俊智) is the Parsons Foundation Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the
University of California, Los Angeles[1][2] and is the co-founder and lead scientific advisor of Easel Biotechnologies, LLC.[3]
He is best known for his work in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and bioenergy. Liao has been recognized for the biosynthesis and production of higher alcohols such as
isobutanol from sugars,
cellulose, waste protein, or
carbon dioxide.
Liao and his team are researching protein based biofuels which use proteins, rather than fats or carbohydrates, as a significant raw material for
biorefining and
biofuel production. The benefit of using protein is that the protein metabolism is much faster than fatty acid metabolism such as
algae biofuels, which leads to higher production.[7]
Electrofuels
Liao's lab recently participated in the
US Department of Energy's
Electrofuels program. They proposed converting solar energy into liquid fuels such as
isobutanol.[8] A new
bioreactor could store electricity as liquid fuel with the help of a genetically engineered microbes and carbon dioxide. The
isobutanol produced would have an energy density close to
gasoline.[9]
Non-oxidative glycolysis
Liao has also worked on the creation of a non-oxidative
glycolysis pathway.[10] Natural metabolic pathways degrade sugars in an oxidative way that loses 1/3 of the carbon to CO2 in fermentation. The Liao laboratory has developed a pathway, called Non-oxidative glycolysis (NOG), that allows 100% carbon conservation in various fermentation processes.
Awards and honors
Samson-Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in Alternative Energy and Smart Mobility for Transportation, Israel, 2020
^Li, H.; Opgenorth, P. H.; Wernick, D. G.; Rogers, S.; Wu, T.-Y.; Higashide, W.; Malati, P.; Huo, Y.-X.; Cho, K. M.; Liao, J. C. (2012). "Integrated Electromicrobial Conversion of CO2 to Higher Alcohols". Science. 335 (6076): 1596.
Bibcode:
2012Sci...335.1596L.
doi:
10.1126/science.1217643.
PMID22461604.
S2CID24328552.