Dr Tuck Seng Wong

Dr. Tuck Seng Wong is a lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield (TUoS). He is affiliated to Chemical Engineering at the Life Science Interface (ChELSI) Institute and Advanced Biomanufacturing Centre (ABC). He is also the founder of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to promote undergraduate research in TUoS. The research in Wong group focuses on applying advanced protein engineering technique, specifically directed evolution, to tailor the properties of biocatalysts/enzymes for industrial and pharmaceutical applications, as well as to elucidate the design principles used by Nature. There are three key areas that his research group is currently working on: (1) Development of novel molecular biology tools to advance the field of directed evolution (e.g., method to create high quality mutant library), (2) Application of directed evolution to improve existing properties of industrially relevant enzymes (e.g., cytochrome P450s, carbonyl reductases, aromatic peroxygenases and hydrolases) or to create novel functions, and (3) Development of computational tools to facilitate/expedite experimental design (e.g., method to analyse genetic diversity). Some of his research projects include (1) Biological carbon dioxide capture and utilization (CCU) for chemical syntheses, capitalizing on his interest in directed evolution and synthetic biology, and (2) Continuous biotransformation. Complementing protein engineering, his group also applies a wide array of biophysical techniques to study various properties of biomolecules (e.g., structure, stability, oligomeric state, protein-protein interaction, and protein-DNA interaction).

Institutional page:  http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cbe/staff/staffprofiles/drtswong

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