My name is CHENG Kuan-Chen (IAFoST Fellow), receiving my Ph.D. degree of agricultural and biological engineering at The Penn State University in 2010. I have more than 25 years of research experiences in the areas of microbial bioprocessing and fermentation. I am now a professor in the Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University since Aug, 2019. Before I returned to Taiwan, I was offered as a research associate in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Dept. at The University of Arizona, where I also conducted research for the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB).  I am now an active member of the Taiwan Association for Food Science and Technology, Agricultural Chemical Society of Taiwan, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), Taiwan Association for Food Protection, IFT and the honor societies Gamma Sigma Delta (agricultural) and Alpha Epsilon (agricultural, food, and biological engineering). Please visit our official website for more information.

Submerged fermentation of medical mushroom

G. formosanum is an endemic species of Lingzhi in Taiwan. We devote to optimize the bioactive metabolites production and evaluate its bioactive function.

New strain development and alcoholic beverages

Molecular biology methods have tremendous value not only  in the investigation of basic scientific questions, but also in application to a wide variety of problems affecting the overall human welfare. The genetically modified strain usually exhibits higher production efficiency and even results in higher purity of target product. Accordingly, I would like to employ my knowledge of molecular biology and biochemistry to focus on industrial strain modification which can exhibit higher conversion rate toward raw material and/or higher tolerance to product inhibition. Mutant strains or new strains can also be obtained through different strategies. Currently, we are working on new yeast strains screening for making alcoholic beverages. Yeasts with special aroma will be our targets. 

Lactic acid bacteria and microbiota

Lactic acid bacteria can as antidiabetic agents, immune system modulation agents, cholesterol-reducing agents, and anticancer agents. In recent years, lactic acid bacteria can improve infant diarrhea in clinical , but the underlying mechanism has not been clarified.  Our laboratory will be separated and purified the specific lactic acid products, and treated with intestinal cells containing epithelial cells, neural cells, and immune cells to investigate the improvement of infant diarrhea. The major probiotics (bacteria) in human GI will also be LAB since they are anaerobics.