Dr. Wei Huang

Lecturer in Environmental Microbiology

Address:
GPRG
Kroto Research Institute
North Campus, University of Sheffield
Broad Lane
Sheffield
S3 7HQ
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)114 22 25796
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 5701
Room: LG15

email : w.huang@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

Dr. Wei Huang is a lecturer at GPRG group within the Kroto Research Institute. After graduating from Tsinghua University (China) in 1998, he obtained his PhD from Sheffield University in 2002. He is one of the pioneers who have utilised Raman microspectroscopy for the study of microbes at the single cell level, and this technology also helps to study bacteria-chemicals and bacteria-surface interactions. He brings expertise to study biodegradation genes from unculturable microorganisms and construct biosensors. His research interests include ecological genetics of unculturable microorganisms, horizontal gene transfer in the natural environment and microbial metabolic engineering that promotes generating energy from green wastes. Overall, he has contributed to raising research grants from ERDF, EPSRC, BBSRC, NERC and CCLRC.

Selected Publications

Andrews, J.S., Rolfe, S.A., Huang, W.E., Scholes, J.D., and Banwart, S.A. (2010) Biofilm formation in environmental bacteria is influenced by different macromolecules depending on genus and species. Environmental Microbiology in press: DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02223.x.

Rico A., Bennett M.H., Forcat S., Huang W. E. and Preston G.M. (2010) Agroinfiltration Reduces ABA Levels and Suppresses Pseudomonas syringae-Elicited Salicylic Acid Production in Nicotiana tabacum. PLOS One 5: e8977.

Huang , W.E. *, Mengqiu Li, Roger M. Jarvis, Royston Goodacre, and Steven A. Banwart. (2010) Shining light on the microbial world: the application of Raman microspectroscopy. Advances in Applied Microbiology. 70: 153-186.

Yizhi Song, Guanghe Li, Steven F. Thornton, Ian P. Thompson, Steven A. Banwart, David N. Lerner and Huang, W.E.* (2009) Optimization of Bacterial Whole Cell Bioreporters for Toxicity Assay of Environmental Samples. Environmental Science & Technology. 43: 7931-7938.

Huang, W.E.*, Ward, A.D., and Whiteley, A.S. (2009) Raman tweezers sorting of single microbial cells. Environmental Microbiology Reports 1: 44-49.

Huang, W.E.*, Ferguson, A., Singer, A.C., Lawson, K., Thompson, I.P., Kalin, R.M. et al. (2009) Resolving Genetic Functions within Microbial Populations: In Situ Analyses Using rRNA and mRNA Stable Isotope Probing Coupled with Single-Cell Raman-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 75: 234-241.

Huang, W.E.*, Singer, A.C., Spiers A.J., Preston G.M. and Whiteley A.S. (2008) Characterizing the regulation of the Pu promoter in Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1. Environmental Microbiology. 10: 1668-1680.

Song, Y.Z., Hahn, T., Thompson, I.P., Mason, T.J., Preston, G.M., Li, G.H. Paniwnyk, L. and Huang, W.E.*. (2007) Ultrasound-mediated DNA transfer for bacteria. Nucleic Acids Research 35: e129.

Huang, W.E., Stoecker, K., Griffiths, R., Newbold, L., Daims, H., Whiteley, A.S., and Wagner, M. (2007) Raman-FISH: Combining stable-isotope Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence in situ hybridization for the single cell analysis of identity and function. Environmental Microbiology 9: 1878-1889.

Huang, W.E., Ude, S., and Spiers, A.J. (2007) Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 biofilm and planktonic cells have differentiable Raman spectral profiles. Microbial Ecology 53: 471-474.

Ferguson, A.S., Huang, W.E., Lawson, K.A., Doherty, R., Gibert, O., Dickson, K.W., Whiteley, A.S., Kulakov, L.A., Thompson, I.P., Kalin, R.M. and Larkin, M.J. (2007) Microbial analysis of soil and groundwater from a gasworks site and comparison to a sequenced biological reactive barrier remediation process. Journal of Applied Microbiology 102:1227-1238.

Huang, W.E.*, Hopper, D., Goodacre, R., Beckmann, M., Singer, A., and Draper, J. (2006) Rapid characterization of microbial biodegradation pathways by FT-IR spectroscopy. Journal of Microbiological Methods 67: 273-280.

Huang, W.E. and Spiers A.J. (2006) Consideration of future requirements for Raman microbiology as an examplar for the ab initio development of informatics frameworks for emergent OMIC technologies. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 10:238-241.

Huang, W.E., Huang, L.F., Preston, G.M., Naylor, M., Carr, J.P., Li, Y.H. et al. (2006) Quantitative in situ assay of salicylic acid in tobacco leaves using a genetically modified biosensor strain of Acinetobacter sp. ADP1. Plant Journal 46: 1073-1083.

Ude, S., Bailey, M.J., Huang, W.E., and Spiers, A.J. (2005) The environmental plasmid pQBR103 alters the single-cell Raman spectral profile of Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. Microbial Ecology 53: 494-497.

Huang, W.E., Bailey, M.J., Thompson, I.P., Whiteley, A.S., and Spiers, A.J. (2007) Single-cell Raman spectral profiles of Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 reflects in vitro and in planta metabolic history. Microbial Ecology 53: 414-425.

Huang, W. E., Goodacre, R., Elliott, G.N., Beckmann, M., Worgan, H., Bailey, M.J., Williams, P.A., Scullion, J., and Draper, J. (2005) A novel approach using metabolic 'footprinting' for monitoring changes in bacterial population structures in soil slurries caused by horizontal gene transfer. Metabolomics 1:305-315.

Huang, W.E., Wang, H., Zheng, H.J., Huang, L.F., Singer, A.C., Thompson, I., and Whiteley, A.S. (2005) Chromosomally located gene fusions constructed in Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 for the detection of salicylate. Environmental Microbiology 7: 1339-1348.

Singer, A.C., Huang, W.E., Helm, J., and Thompson, I.P. (2005) Insight into pollutant bioavailability and toxicity through Raman confocal microscopy. Journal of Microbiological Methods 60:417-422.

Huang, W.E.*, Griffiths, R.I., Thompson, I.P., Bailey, M.J., and Whiteley, A.S. (2004) Raman microscopic analysis of single microbial cells. Analytical Chemistry 76: 4452-4458.

Huang, W.E.*, Oswald, S.E., Lerner, D.N., Smith, C.C., and Zheng, C.M. (2003) Dissolved oxygen imaging in a porous medium to investigate biodegradation in a plume with limited electron acceptor supply. Environmental Science & Technology 37: 1905-1911.

Huang, W. E., Smith, C.C., Lerner, D.N., Thornton, S.F., and Oram, A. (2002) Physical modelling of solute transport in porous media: evaluation of an imaging technique using UV excited fluorescent dye. Water Research 36:1843-1853.

Li, G., Huang, W.*, Lerner D.N., and Zhang, X. (2000) Enrichment of degrading microbes and bioremediation of petrochemical contaminants in polluted soil. Water Research 34:3845-3853.

Note: * corresponding author