Wei Huang

Activities 

• Associate Editor for Environmental Microbiology
• Associate Editor for Microbial Biotechnology
• EPSRC Fellowship on Synthetic Biology
• Developing SimCells (simple and simulated cells) for synthetic biology
• One of pioneers studying microbes at single cell level using Raman micro-spectroscopy
• Pioneer employing ultrasound to transfer DNA to bacterial cells

Current projects 

• EPSRC, Program Grant, EEBio. 2024-2029
• BBSRC, Engineering Biology, 2024-2026

Teaching

• C10: Engineering Principles for Synthetic Biology
• C9: Environmental Engineering
• C12: Sustainable Engineering

Selected Publications (* corresponding author)

• Tu W, Thompson IP, Huang WE*. Engineering bionanoreactor in bacteria for efficient hydrogen production (2024) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2024 Jul 16;121(29):e2404958121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2404958121.
• Tu W, Xu J, Thompson IP, Huang WE*. Engineering artificial photosynthesis based on rhodopsin for CO2 fixation (2023) Nature Communications Dec 4;14(1):8012. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43524-4.  
• Lim B, Yin Y, Ye H, Cui Z, Papachristodoulou A, Huang WE*. (2022) Reprogramming Synthetic Cells for Targeted Cancer Therapy. ACS Synthetic Biology 11(3):1349-1360.
• Huang W.E.*, Lim B., Hsu C.C., Xiong D., Wu W., Yu Y., Jia H., Wang Y., Zeng Y., Ji M., Chang H., Zhang X., Wang H., Cui Z. (2020) RT-LAMP for rapid diagnosis of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Microbial Biotechnology 13:950-961. 
• Catherine Fan, Paul A. Davison, Robert Habgood, Christoph M. Decker, Manuela Gesell Salazar, Khemmathin Lueangwattanapong, Helen E. Townley, Ian P. Thompson, Hua Ye, Zhanfeng Cui, Frank Schmidt, C. Neil Hunter and Wei E. Huang*. Chromosome-free bacterial cells are safe and programmable platforms for synthetic biology (2020) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117:6752-6761.
• Hsu C.C., Xu J., Brinkhofa B., Wang H., Cui Z., Huang W.E.*, Ye H.* (2020) A Single-Cell Raman-based Platform to Identify Developmental Stages of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neurons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America  117: 18412-18423.
• Chen, J.X., Steel, H., Wu, Y-H, Wang, Y., Xu J., Rampley C.P.N., Thompson I.P., Papachristodoulou A, Huang W.E.* (2019) Development of aspirin inducible biosensors in Escherichia coli and SimCells. Applied & Environmental Microbiology 85(6). pii: e02959-18. Highlighted by AEM Spotlight.
• Jing, X., Gou, H., Gong, Y., Su, X., Xu, L. Ji, Y. Song, Y., Thompson, I.P., Xu, J. Huang, W.E.* (2018) Raman-activated cell sorting and metagenomic sequencing revealing carbon-fixing bacteria in the ocean. Environmental Microbiology 20:2241-2255.
• Song, Y., Kaster, A., Vollmers, J., Song, Y., Davison, P.A., Frentrup, M., Preston, G.M., Thompson, I.P., Murrell, J.C., Yin, H., Hunter, C.N., Huang, W.E.* (2017) Single cell genomics based on Raman sorting reveals novel carotenoid-containing bacteria in the Red Sea. Microbial Biotechnology. 10:125-137.
• Berry D, Mader E, Woebken D, Wang Y, Zhu D, Lee TK, Palatinszky M, Schintlmeister A, Schmid M, Shterzer N, Mizrahi I, Rauch I, Decker T, Bocklitzg T, Popp J, Gibson CM, Fowler PW, Huang WE, Wagner M (2015) Heavy water (D2O) incorporation as a universally applicable activity marker for microbial communities with single cell resolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112: 112:E194-203. 
• Zhang, D., Berry, J.P., Zhu, D., Wang, Y., Chen, Y., Jiang, B., Huang, S., Langford, H., Li, G., Xu, J., Aries, E. and Huang, W.E.* (2015) Isolation and physiological characterisation of an uncultured degrader in a complex microbial community. ISME Journal 9:603-614. 
• Li M, Canniffe DP, Jackson PJ, Davison PA, FitzGerald S, Dickman MJ, Burgess JG, Hunter CN & Huang WE*. (2012) Rapid resonance Raman microspectroscopy to probe carbon dioxide fixation by single cells in microbial communities. ISME Journal 6(4):875-885.
• Huang WE*, Ferguson A, Singer AC, Lawson K, Thompson IP, Kalin RM, Larkin MJ, Bailey MJ & Whiteley AS. (2009) Resolving genetic functions within microbial populations: In situ analyses using rRNA and mRNA stable isotope probing coupled with single-cell Raman-fluorescence in situ hybridization. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 75:234-241.
• Song Y, Li G, Thornton SF, Thompson IP, Banwart SA, Lerner DN & Huang WE* (2009) Optimization of bacterial whole cell bioreporters for toxicity assay of environmental samples. Environmental Science and Technology 43:7931-7938.
• Huang WE, Stoecker K, Griffiths R, Newbold L, Daims H, Whiteley A & Wagner M. (2007) Raman-FISH: Combining stable-isotope Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence in situ hybridization for the single cell analysis of identity and function. Environmental Microbiology 9:1878-1889.
• Song Y, Hahn T, Thompson IP, Mason TJ, Preston GM, Li G, Paniwnyk L & Huang WE*. (2007) Ultrasound-mediated DNA transfer for bacteria. Nucleic Acids Research 35:e129.
• Huang WE, Wang H, Zheng H, Huang L, Singer AC, Thompson IP & Whiteley AS (2005) Chromosomally located gene fusions constructed in Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 for the detection of salicylate. Environmental Microbiology 7:1339-1348.
• Huang WE*, Griffiths RI, Thompson IP, Bailey MJ & Whiteley AS. (2004) Raman microscopic analysis of single microbial cells. Analytical Chemistry 76:4452-4458.