Office Location – MD6 #10-01S
Affiliations
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
Principle Investigator, NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI)
Principal Investigator, Synthetic Biology Translational Research Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
Associate Investigator, National Centre for Engineering Biology (NCEB), Singapore
Research Cluster Lead, Wilmar-NUS Corporate Laboratory (WIL@NUS)
Biography
Dr. Xue earned his PhD degree from the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University, with a specialization in biochemical engineering. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral training at the Biomedical Center of Uppsala University in Sweden, where he became proficient in using X-ray crystallography to determine protein structures. Passionate about both basic and applied research, he has made notable contributions to projects involving cytoskeletal regulatory proteins, self-assembling peptides, and biocatalytic enzymes. His current research is dedicated to uncovering the structure and function of novel enzymes and exploring their applications in synthetic biology. So far, he has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers, participated in numerous interdisciplinary projects, and filed several international patents.
Professional Appointments
Member, Singapore Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Education
– Ph.D., Biochemical Engineering, Tianjin University (2002)
– M.Eng., Biochemical Engineering, Tianjin University (1999)
– B.Eng., Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University (1997)
– BA., English, Tianjin University (1997)
Research Interest
Enzyme engineering by structure-guided rational design and directed evolution; protein structure elucidation using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM; biomedical and industrial applications of engineered enzymes; protein and peptide scaffolds for the enhancement of enzyme activity and stability.
Current Research Projects
Current projects span sustainable enzymatic production of functional lipids, discovery and engineering of radical-mediated metabolic pathways, bioremediation and recovery of precious metals from electronic waste via engineered reductases, microbial cannabinoid biosynthesis using noncanonical enzymes with structure-guided prenyltransferase optimization, and development of genetically encodable scaffolds/minimal carboxysome shells to stabilize and organize multi-enzyme systems.
Selected Publications
- Ling LH, Chua ET, Xue B, Jia X, Chow JY, Yang RL, Lim YP, Han P, Xie H, Tan C-H, Nguyen GKT & Yew WS. Sustainable Biosynthesis of Diverse Fatty Acid Esters of Hydroxy Fatty Acids (FAHFAs) for Industrial Production. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 13, 2830–2844 (2025).
- Ma K, Xue B, Chu R, Zheng Y, Sharma S, Jiang L, Hu M, Xie Y, Hu Y, Tao T, Zhou Y, Liu D, Li Z, Yang Q, Chen Y, Wu S, Tong Y, Robinson RC, Yew WS, Jin X, Liu Y, Zhao H, Ang EL, Wei Y & Zhang Y. A Widespread Radical-Mediated Glycolysis Pathway. Am. Chem. Soc. 146, 26187–26197 (2024).
- Chua JPS, Rajasabhai R, Teo WZ, Xue B & Yew WS. Engineering a Metal Reductase for the Bioremediation of Anthropogenic Electronic Wastes: From Hg(II) to Au(III) and Ag(I) Enzymatic Reduction. JACS Au 4, 2335–2342 (2024).
- Go MK, Zhu T, Lim KJH, Hartono YD, Xue B, Fan H & Yew WS. Cannabinoid Biosynthesis Using Noncanonical Cannabinoid Synthases. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 24, 1259 (2023).
- Lim KJH, Hartono YD, Xue B#, Go MK, Fan H & Yew WS. Structure-Guided Engineering of Prenyltransferase NphB for High-Yield and Regioselective Cannabinoid Production. ACS Catal. 12, 4628–4639 (2022).
- Tan YQ, Xue B & Yew WS. Genetically Encodable Scaffolds for Optimizing Enzyme Function. Molecules 26, 1389 (2021).
- Tan YQ, Ali S, Xue B#, Teo WZ, Ling LH, Go MK, Lv H, Robinson RC, Narita A & Yew WS. Structure of a Minimal α-Carboxysome-Derived Shell and Its Utility in Enzyme Stabilization. Biomacromolecules 22, 4095–4109 (2021).
# Co-first author
