Sungyeon Jang,

I am currently completing my Ph.D. in chemical engineering at POSTECH in Korea under the direction of Professor Gyoo Yeol Jung. I expect to defend by June 2020.

My research interests are about the development of RNA-based genetic regulators for synthetic biology and my research has concentrated upon engineering RNA-based genetically encoded biosensors in E. coli. First, I made riboswitches that could detect specifically desired chemicals, such as naringenin, caprolactam, and L-phenylalanine in E. coli. The riboswitches were obtained by in vitro & in vivo selections from the generation of RNA aptamer pool by SELEX and dual selection with the tetA gene by nickel ion and tetracycline, respectively. Next, I constructed several genetic circuits with RNA and protein-based genetic regulators to improve their own characteristics. The hybrid input parts with a riboswitch and a transcriptional repressor could invert and amplify the output signal. In addition, a combination of a riboswitch and a transcription factor that could bind with the same ligand could tune their own operational ranges. These and more works are described in more detail in my accompanying CV.

I hope to expand the application areas of RNA-based genetic regulators and study novel cutting-edge techniques with postdoctoral training. In addition, I have followed your lab’s work in this area and now I am particularly interested in your work on the gene regulation with noncoding RNA.