Cancelled: Colloquium with Cătălin Voiniciuc (University of Florida, USA)

On 30 June 2026, Cătălin Voiniciuc (University of Florida, USA) will present insights to his current research as part of the SNP2Prot Colloquium Series.

Speaker: Cătălin Voiniciuc (University of Florida, USA)
Title: SNPs for Superior Plant Enzymes: Exploiting Natural Variation, Directed Evolution, and AI

Date: Tuesday, 30 June 2026
Time: 16:00 pm
Location: Lecture hall E.02, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 9 (Heide Süd Campus), 06120 Halle (Saale)

Abstract: Understanding and engineering plant carbohydrate-active enzymes remains a central challenge for enhancing crop traits, biomaterials, and sustainable biomanufacturing. Since moving from Halle to Gainesville (Florida), my team has continued to gain mechanistic insights into plant cell wall biology, while also developing new strategies for scalable enzyme engineering, integrating laboratory automation and computational approaches. A key advance has been the development of a modular yeast platform that enables heterologous expression and high-throughput functional screening of plant enzymes, including Cellulose Synthase-Like (CSL) proteins from numerous algae and land plants. By combining gene synthesis with a novel hemicellulose biosensor, these systems allow systematic exploration of sequence–function relationships across large enzyme libraries. Complementing these efforts, we established the BOTany Foundry, an automation framework that democratizes high-throughput experimental workflows and accelerates design–build–test–learn cycles using affordable Opentrons robots and user-friendly protocols that require no coding skills. Our BOTany methods leverage modular cloning (MoClo) and were used to bioengineer cell wall synthases as well as glycosyl hydrolases in yeast and plants model systems to characterize their functions in vivo. Building on these advances, we are developing new strategies for directed enzyme evolution that leverage natural sequence variation, combinatorial design, and emerging AI-based models to identify and optimize superior biocatalysts. Combined with genome editing, this integrated platform enables the discovery, engineering, and deployment of plant enzymes for next-generation applications in food, agriculture, and the circular bioeconomy.

If you like to meet with the speaker, please contact the host, Mariana Schuster.

See all upcoming SNP2Prot colloquia listed here: https://snp2prot.uni-halle.de/events/category/colloquium/

The SNP2Prot Colloquium Series is integrated to the

• Halle Plant Science Colloquium (HPSC) – https://www.landw.uni-halle.de/prof/pflanzenernaehrung/hpsc/
• IPB Seminar Series – https://www.ipb-halle.de/forschung/symposien-und-kolloquien/vortraege/ipb-seminare