Dr. Zhili He

EPSCoR Research Focus: 
Microbial Conversion
Research Assistant Professor and Associate Director
Institute For Environmental Genomics
University of Oklahoma
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Education: 
B.S. | Biology | Hunan Normal University, China | 1986
M.S. | Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology | Chinese Academy of Science, China | 1989
Ph.D. | Research School of Biological Sciences | Australian National University, Australia | 1998
B.A. | Computing and Information Science | University of Guelph, ON, Canada | 2001
Certified Bioinformatics Specialist (CBS) and Master (CBM) | 2002
Research Interests: 

Cellulosic Biofuels Research:  Microbial Conversion

Dr. He's research focus relates to understanding the microbial ecology, functional genomics, metagenomics, physiology and molecular mechanisms underlying important microbial processes in nature and controlled environments. This includes three directions:

  • Microbial ecology to understand the diversity, composition, structure, interaction, dynamics and evolution of microbial communities related to the global climate change, long-term sustainability of bioenergy crops, and bioremediation using high throughput metagenomic technologies, such as microarrays (e.g., GeoChip, PhyloChip) and next generation sequencing

  • Systems microbiology and microbial functional genomics to understand gene functions, regulations, and networks of model organisms or near-model organisms, such as Desulfovibrio and Shewanella species for bioremediation, and Clostridium and Thermoanaerobacter species for biofuels production using a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP)

  • Development of microarray-based biotechnologies and bioinformatics tools to achieve the project's research goals. Those directions unify my research into an interactive and cohesive research theme, which embeds basic research components, public interests and an applied component

Pictured (above):  Dr. He's research will aid in the development of more efficient and disease-tolerant switchgrass plants. (Photo credit: OSU Agriculture Communications)

Research Assistants Funded by EPSCoR: 

Christopher L. Hemme | Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of Botany and Microbiology | Institute for Environmental Genomics  | University of Oklahoma | hemmecl@ou.edu

 

Yong Jin Lee | Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of Botany and Microbiology | Institute for Environmental Genomics | University of Oklahoma | yjlee@ou.edu

 

Wenbin Liu | Doctoral Student | Department of Botany and Microbiology | Institute for Environmental Genomics  | University of Oklahoma | Wenbin.Liu-1@ou.edu

 

Yue Huang | Doctoral Student | Department of Botany and Microbiology | Institute for Environmental Genomics | University of Oklahoma | yohann@ou.edu

 

Lingfang Gao | Visiting Doctoral Student | Department of Botany and Microbiology | Institute for Environmental Genomics | scholar from the Harbin Institute of Technology, China | Lingfang.Gao-1@ou.edu

Key Publications: 
  • Lin, L., H. Song, Q. Tu, Y. Qin, A. Zhou, et al. “The Thermoanaerobacter Glycobiome Reveals Mechanisms of Pentose and Hexose Co-Utilization in Bacteria.” PLoS Genet 7.10 (2011). PLoS Genet. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002318.
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  • Lin, L., H. Song, Y. Li, Z. He, Y. Pu, J. Zhou, and J. Xu. "Development of a Novel Ultrasound-mediated Transformation Method in Thermoanaerobacter Ethanolicus." PLoS ONE 5: E12582.
  • Hemme, C. L., H. Mouttaki, Y-L Lee, G. Zhang, L. Goodwin, S. Lucas, A. Copeland, A. Lapidus, T. Galvina Del Rio, H. Tice, E. Saunders, T. Brettin, J. C. Detter, C. S. Hand, S. Pitluck, M. L. Land, L. J. Hauser, N. Kyprides, N. Mikhailova, Z. He, L. Wu, J. D. Van Nostrand, B. Henrissat, Q. He, P. A. Lawson, R. S. Tanner, L. R. Lynd, J. Wiegel, M. W. Fields, A. P. Arkin, C. W. Schadt, B. S. Stevenson, M. J. McInerney, Y. Yang, H. Dong, D. Xing, N. Ren, A. Wang, R. L. Huhnke, J. R. Mielenz, S-Y Ding, M. E. Himmel, S. Taghavi, D. Van Der Lelie, E. M. Rubin, and J. Zhou. "Sequencing of Multiple Clostridial Genomes Related to Biomass Conversion and Biofuel Production." Journal of Bacteriology 192.24 (2010): 6494-496. Journal of Bacteriology. doi: 10.1128/JB.01064-10.
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  • Lin, L., H. Song, Y. Ji, Z. He, Y. Pu, J. Zhou, and J. Xu. "Development of a Novel Ultrasound-mediated Transformation Method in Thermoanaerobacter Ethanolicus." PLoS ONE 5 (2010). PLoS ONE. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012582.
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  • Lin, L., H. Song, Y. Ji, Z. He, Y. Pu, J. Zhou, and J. Xu. ""Ultrasound-mediated DNA Transformation in Thermophilic Gram-positive "" PLoS One 5.9 (2010): E12582. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012582.
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  • Feng, X. Y., H. Mouttaki, L. Lin, R. Huang, B. Wu, C. L. Hemme, Z. He, B. Zhang, L. Hicks, J. Xu, J. Zhou, and Y. J. Tang. "Characterization of the Central Metabolic Pathways in Thermoanaerobacter Sp. Strain X514 via Isotopomer-Assisted Metabolite Analysis." Applied and Environmental Microbiology 75.15 (2009): 5001-008. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00715-09.
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  • Li, X., Z. He, and J. Zhou. "Selection of Optimal Oligonucleotide Probes for Microarrays Using Multiple Criteria, Global Alignment and Parameter Estimation." Nucleic Acids Research 33.19 (2005): 6114-123. Nucleic Acids Research. doi: 10.1093/nar/gki914.  
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Curriculum Vitae: