Yo Suzuki, PhD

Bio

Yo Suzuki, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the J. Craig Venter Institute working in the Synthetic Biology and Bioenergy group. Dr. Suzuki’s research is focused on systematic investigation of gene functions in various organisms. This includes studies of phenotypes involving inactivation or hyperactivation of multiple genes that can reveal novel gene functions. In some cases, these functions can be incorporated into microbial organisms through genome engineering to serve specific purposes in industrial or biomedical applications. Prior to his appointment at JCVI, Dr. Suzuki was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. He received his PhD from University of Colorado at Boulder in molecular biology. His undergraduate degree is from Nagoya University in Japan.

Research Priorities

Understanding cellular life

• Systematic analysis of gene functions for all genes in the genome using conditional gene inactivation via CRISPRi in a minimal bacterial cell.

Engineering deep-skin microbiotas toward a treatment for type 1 diabetes

• Construction of bacteria that can respond to rising blood glucose levels and produce a variant of insulin in a suitable layer of the skin to serve as a surrogate for the insulin-producing cell in the body.
• Eventual development of a safe, non-invasive, non-immunoreactive, and fully automated system for glucose sensing and insulin administration.

Developing organisms for producing fuels and valuable compounds from biomass

• Establishment of synthetic biology pipelines for designing, building, and testing organisms and other biological systems.
• Application of advanced genome engineering technologies to the engineering of bacteria with the capacity to utilize aromatic compounds derived from lignin.
• Identification of synergistic interactions among cellulases and incorporation of these interactions into designer cellulosomes for efficient release of sugar from biomass.

Using drug-sensitive yeast strains to rapidly identify mechanisms of action for drugs

• Identification of candidate targets for antimalarials and anti-cancer compounds using whole genome sequencing in yeast strains that acquired mutations to resist these compounds.
• Validation of causal mutations for the resistance phenotypes using genetic engineering.
• Acceleration of the identification of compound targets in native organisms with information from facile yeast experiments.