Joined November 2018
Photos and videos
Congrats to the team led by Yujie and Maolin for successfully integrating new-to-nature photoenzymes into cellular metabolism, published in @NatureCatalysis (rdcu.be/e0pcM). This work lays the groundwork for ab initio biosynthesis design & programmable biomanufacturing.

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Are you a US-based STEM college student seeking a summer research opportunity in AI Chemistry? Join us at NSF-MMLI! Applications will close on February 17, 2026. To know more, go to go.illinois.edu/matrix-uni #summerresearch #AIchemistry #NSFfunded #chemistry #ArtificialInteligence
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We are very grateful to NSF’s generous support that will enable us to develop a cloud biofoundry and turn it to a national user facility: news.illinois.edu/illinois-c….

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I was very excited that our AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis (MMLI) got renewed for another 5 years. See: NSF announces $100 million investment in National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes awards to secure American leadership in AI nsf.gov/news/nsf-announces-1…
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Exited to learn that my NSF global center proposal was selected for funding (new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-interna…). With this grant, we will be able to collaborate with researchers from other countries to establish standards and metrics for biofoundries and democratize biofoundry.
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Congrats to the team led by Maolin who developed an exciting new-to-nature enzymatic process to selectively incorporate fluorine motifs into functional molecules (cabbi.bio/new-additive-proce…).
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Huimin Zhao retweeted
We were delighted to present Prof. Dr. Randall Platt with the ACS Synthetic Biology & AIChE Young Innovator Award 🏅 Congratulations, @randall_platt! 🎉 Here's Prof. Huimin Zhao presenting the award at #SEED:
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It was nice to attend another AI related expo in the same building after attending an expo for all 24 NSF AI institutes last September. Enjoyed talking to staff from various lawmakers’ offices to promote the emerging AI Robotics SynBio area. igb.illinois.edu/article/igb…

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Huimin Zhao retweeted
#WeekendReading from #ACSSyntheticBiology! This Editorial from Hector García Martín, Stanislav Mazurenko, and EiC Huimin Zhao has been downloaded over 2000 times! See it here ➡️ go.acs.org/85P AI for Synthetic Biology Special Issue ➡️ go.acs.org/85Q 🤖🔬⚗️
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