The Year 2024:
- June 2024, Zhang lab will, as the co-PI, continue the PFAS mycoremediation research with Myconaut, LLC, supported by NSF-SBIR.
- June 2024, a back-to-back publication in the Journal of Polymers and the Environment on degradable adhesive polymer: "Assessment of Fungal Decomposition Strategies as a Step Towards the Development of Sustainable Pressure Sensitive Adhesives"!
- May 2024, as the co-awardee of a Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Seed Grant, the Zhang lab will work with Dr. Peter Kang's lab to develop "A Fungal-Amended Approach to Enhance Long-Term Mineral Carbon Storage." I'm looking forward to expanding the fungal roles in biomineralization!
- April 2024, Jiwei Zhang receives the 2024 Richard C. Newman Art of Teaching Award!
- April 2024, paper up at AEM! Using cell-free expression, we are trying to unlock the distinctive biochemical functions of redox genes in wood decay in brown rot fungi!
- April 2024, at the 46th Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels, and Chemicals (SBFC), Jiwei Zhang gave a 30-minute oral presentation titled: "Lignin Valorization by An Artificial Fungal-Bacterial Consortium Trained from the Boreal Forest Ecosystem". The postdoc Weiran Li presented the poster: "CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) mediated gene knockout in a brown rot wood decomposer fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum".
- April 2024, Jiwei Zhang presented at the 2024 GSP_ECR PI Meeting of the Department of Energy: "An integrated genetic approach to address the question of what genes made fungi uniquely wood decomposers?"
- March 2024, BBE news: "Gene editing for a sustainable future: Unlocking fungi mysteries for a greener world"!
The Year 2023:
- Paper up for studying the knock-down of Small Secreted Proteins in wood decay fungi, supported by BARD, Nov. 2023.
- Paper accepted, Dec. 2023, for using fungal Biodegradation to develop a new Hybrid Adhesive Polymer.
- Welcome Nandin Ganjoloo and Adam Hagg to join the lab to pursue their PhD degrees in July 2023.
- We can genetically manipulate brown rot wood decay fungus, paper up Jan. 2023!
The Year 2022:
Zhang lab (Jiwei Zhang, Weiran Li, and Charles Ayers) took the 2022 ASM Microbe annual meeting from June 9 - to June 13 in Washington DC and presented the fungal phenotyping work (by DOE award) and the MnDRIVE PFAS mycoremediation research.
Zhang lab received $310K 2022 BARD RESEARCH GRANTS this June to study fungal interaction and use it for converting agri-residues. This is a collaboration with Hadar, Y. and Yarden, O. at the Hebrew U, and the project will officially start on Dec. 1, 2022 and through Nov. 30, 2025.
Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (LCCMR) approved a $189K award to Zhang lab to support the research on developing the fungal-wood chips filtering system for PFAS remediation. The project will be from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.
April 2022, Paper up!
Zhang lab presented the brown rot genetics research at the 31st Fungal Genetic Conference at Pacific Grove, CA from March 15 to March 20.
The Year 2021:
Zhang lab received $1.4M DOE awards in the 2021 summer for "large-scale phenotyping" in the mission-relevant lignocellulose-degrading fungi - brown rot fungi. This project is a collaboration among UMN, UW, PNNL, and JGI, lasting from Sep. 1st, 2021 to Aug. 31th, 2024.
Zhang lab got the MnDRIVE Spring 2021 Postdoc Seed Grant Awards to work on "Biological Remediation of Adhesives" with Steve Severtson's group (leading PI) at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering. Jesus David Castaño will be supported by this grant for his postdoctoral research.
Zhang lab will lead the MnDRIVE Spring 2021 Graduate Seed Grant Awards to work on "Using Fungus to Remediate Forever Chemicals". This is a collaboration with Cara Santelli and Jerry Cohen groups at UMN, and with SKB Environmental, Wenck-Stantec as the industrial partners. Graduate student Charles Ayers from Zhang lab will be supported by this grant.
Welcome postdoc Jesus David Castaño, graduate student Charles Ayers, UROP researcher Sam Nguyen, and lab manager Lucas Heffernan join to Zhang lab this fall!