Yu
cen Pu
PhD Candidate
Email: yucenpu@student.ubc.ca
Project
Augmenting lignin acylation via exogenous acyl-CoA ligases
Research Interests
My research focuses on engineering plant cell walls to improve the processing and valorization of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuels and biorefineries. In particular, I am interested in expanding lignin chemistry beyond canonical monolignols by increasing the incorporation of ester-linked phenolic monomers that can introduce more readily cleavable bonds and enhance biomass digestibility.
Education
BSc in Forest Sciences (Honours) | University of British Columbia, Canada (2020)
BSc in Biotechnology | Beijing Forestry University, China (2021)
Selected Publications and Conference Presentations
Chaudhury, D., Torkelson, E. R., Meyers, K. A., Acheson, J. F., Landucci, L. M., Pu, Y., Sun, Z., Tonelli, M., Bingman, C. A., Smith, R. A., Karlen, S. D., Mansfield, S. D., Ralph, J., & Fox, B. G. (2023). Rapid Biocatalytic Synthesis of Aromatic Acid CoA Thioesters utilizing Microbial Aromatic Acid CoA Ligases. ChemBioChem, https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202300001
Pu, Y and Mansfield, S. D. (2025). Engineering plant phenolic metabolites via overexpression of microbial feruloyl-CoA synthetase in Arabidopsis thaliana. Canadian Society of Plant Biologists.
Awards, Grants, Scholarships
- President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
- International Tuition Award
- Faculty of Forestry Graduate Award
- Faculty of Forestry International Student Scholarship