Dr. Yonghua Li-Beisson is a senior scientist at the French Atomic and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) in France, a publically founded national research organization dedicated to energy research. She obtained a PhD from the University of Hull under the direction of Professor Colin Ratledge on lipid biosynthesis in oleaginous fungi. This is followed a postdoctoral training in Michigan State University in the laboratory of Professor John Ohlrogge, where she made major contributions to uncover enzymes involved in the synthesis of lipid polymers in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. She is currently developing innovative technologies in dissecting the lipid metabolism in green microalgae, with the long term goal of creating performant strains for production of biofuel, value-added molecules and synthons for green chemistry. She has over 15 years research experiences in lipid metabolism in model organisms ranging from oleaginous yeasts to higher plants to microalgae. She teaches “lipid metabolism and biotechnology” at the University Aix Marseille. She is a member of the International Scientific Committee for The International Symposium on Plant Lipids (ISPL), and for EuroFed Plant Lipids. She also serves on the scientific advisory board for the French Lipidomics Group (GERLI). She is a guest editor for Plant Cell, and serves as the editorial board member for mSphere (then Eukaryotic Cell), OA Biotechnology, Frontiers in Plant Metabolism/Chemodiversity, and Plant and Cell Physiology.

Lipid metabolism; Lipidomics; Algae; Plants; Biotechnology; Metabolic engineering