Yi Xin received a B.S. in Biotechnology from the Ocean University of China in 2007 and an M.S. in Marine Biology from the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2010. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2015 and then worked as a post-doctor, assistant professor, and associated professor at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), CAS. Now he is serving as a professor at the School of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Hainan University. Together with his collaborators at QIBEBT-CAS and Hainan University, Prof. Xin has developed a series of stable and highly efficient engineering tools (such as overexpression, RNAi, CRISPR/Cas9, etc.) in an industrial microalga, Nannochloropsis oceanica.
Yandu Lu is a professor and lead of the single-cell Bioengineering Group of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea at Hainan University. He received his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His main interest is the evolution, function, and editing of microalgal genomes and the design of synthetic biology using microalgae as chassis, including (1) the characterization and engineering of crucial biological processes and value-added chemicals in microalgae; (2) the development and application of synthetic biology in cell factory design for medical, industrial, and agriculture ends; and (3) the strategy development for heavy-metal remediation approach using microalgae and other microbes.
