Ming-Cheng completed his Master degree in Insect Physiology and Biochemistry from the National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan in 2004. After graduation, he stayed in academia as a research assistant carrying out two subjects: (1) development of biochip for discrimination of Flaviviruses and major lepidopterous pests of Rosaceae fruits; (2) Expression and purification of anti-bacterial peptide cecropin from yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and transgenic tomato. In 2008, he joined in the Micklefield group as a PhD student; his projects were involved in engineering biosynthesis of chlorination and mannosylation on non-ribosomal peptide antibiotics enduracidin and ramoplanin, and re-engineering of a preQ1 riboswitch as a tool for regulating gene expression. He obtained his PhD degree in 2011 and remains in the Micklefield group working on a Post-doctoral position continuing his works on engineering biosynthesis and riboswitches. Ming-Cheng has experience in molecular biology, microbiology, and analytical techniques including HPLC and mass spectrometry.
Publications:
Rewiring Riboswitches to Create New Genetic Circuits in Bacteria. C.J. Robinson, D. Medina-Stacey, M.-C. Wu, H.A. Vincent, J. Micklefield Methods in Enzymology 2016 in press. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/bs.mie.2016.02.022)
Rational Re-engineering of the Transcriptional Silencing PreQ1 Riboswitch. M.-C. Wu, P.T. Lowe, C.J. Robinson, H.A. Vincent, N. Dixon, J. Leigh, J. Micklefield J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015 137, 9015-9021 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5b03405)
Engineered Biosynthesis of Enduracidin Lipoglycopeptide Antibiotics using the Ramoplanin Mannosyltransferase Ram29. M.-C. Wu, M.Q. Styles, L. Nunns, B.J.C. Law, J. Micklefield 2015 161: 1338-1347 DOI:10.1099/mic.0.000095
Modular Riboswitch Toolsets for Synthetic Genetic Control in Diverse Bacterial Species. C.J. Robinson, H.A. Vincent, M.-C. Wu, P.T.Lowe, M.S. Duncan, D. Leys, and J. Micklefield J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 10615-10624. DOI: 10.1021/ja502873j
Bioengineering natural product biosynthetic pathways for therapeutic applications. M.-C. Wu, B. Law, B. Wilkinson and J. Micklefield Current Opinion Biotech. 2012, 23, 931-940 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2012.03.008)
Oligo-nucleotide probes of lepidopteran pests identification, biochip, and identifying method thereof. K.H. Lu, Y.H. Chen, M.-C. Wu 2009, Taiwan Patent 096145246.
Juvenile hormone induction of glutathione S-transferase activity in the larval fat body of the common cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). M.-C. Wu, K.H. Lu 2008, Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology 68: 232-240
Specific primers, oligo-nucleotide probes, biochip of dengue virus identification and identifying method thereof. W.C. Tu, K.H. Lu, M.-C. Wu 2007, Taiwan Patent 96150837.
Conference contributions, other (presenting author is underlined)
C.J. Robinson, N. Dixon, J.N. Duncan, T. Geerlings, M.-C. Wu, P. Lowe, J. Micklefields, “Orthogonal Riboswitches As Tools for Controlling Gene Expression in Bacteria,” RNA 2012: The 17th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mi, USA. May 29-Jun 2, 2012
M. Styles, M.-C. Wu, L. Nunns, B. Law, J. Micklefield, “Combinatorial Biosynthesis of Non-Ribosomal Peptide Antibiotics” 2nd RSC Symposium on Chemical Biology for Drug Discovery, 2012 March 20-21, Alderley Park Conference Centre, Cheshire, UK