Rate My Professor Wei Huang

Professor Wei Huang is a Professor of Biological Engineering in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and Fellow by Special Election in Synthetic Biology at St Edmund Hall. He earned a BA from Qingdao, an MSc from Tsinghua University, and a PhD from the University of Sheffield. Huang moved to Oxford from the University of Sheffield in 2014, where he advanced to full professor status in 2022 through the Recognition of Distinction Awards. He teaches courses including Engineering Principles for Synthetic Biology, Environmental Engineering, and Sustainable Engineering.

Huang's research centers on synthetic biology and Raman single-cell biotechnology. He pioneered SimCells, chromosome-free reprogrammable bacterial platforms derived from natural cells, optimized for dedicated functions as biosensors, miniature factories for green energy, and therapeutic agents. SimCells enable targeted cancer therapy, nitric oxide detection in E. coli Nissle 1917, and hydrogen production via bio-engineered bacteria. In sustainable synthetic biology, his team engineers systems for high-value compounds from H2O and CO2 using sunlight and electrons. Huang developed key Raman techniques: Raman-stable isotope probing (Raman-SIP), Raman-fluorescence in situ hybridization (Raman-FISH), and Raman-activated cell sorting (RACS), facilitating single-cell phenotype-genotype linkage, unculturable bacteria analysis, and rapid diagnostics like FRAST for antibiotic susceptibility. His single-cell Raman technology has been licensed to industry. Huang contributed to RT-LAMP for SARS-CoV-2 detection and holds an EPSRC Fellowship in Synthetic Biology (2014-2019, £1M). He leads EPSRC's EEBio Program Grant (2024-2029) and BBSRC Engineering Biology project (2024-2026). As Associate Editor for Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, he influences the field. Notable publications include 'Engineering bionanoreactor in bacteria for efficient hydrogen production' (PNAS, 2024), 'Engineering artificial photosynthesis based on rhodopsin for CO2 fixation' (Nature Communications, 2023), 'Chromosome-free bacterial cells are safe and programmable platforms for synthetic biology' (PNAS, 2020), 'Reprogramming Synthetic Cells for Targeted Cancer Therapy' (ACS Synthetic Biology, 2022), and 'Raman-FISH: Combining stable-isotope Raman spectroscopy...' (Environmental Microbiology, 2007).