| Michelle Chia-yu Chang | |
| Birth Place: | San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Fields: | Metabolic engineering Synthetic biology |
| Workplaces: | University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma Mater: | University of California, San Diego (BS, BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Thesis Title: | Proton-coupled electron transfer in the Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase |
| Thesis Url: | https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/30067 |
| Thesis Year: | 2004 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | JoAnne Stubbe Daniel G. Nocera |
| Academic Advisors: | Jay Keasling |
| Spouse: | Christopher Chang |
Michelle C. Y. Chang (born 1977) is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a recipient of several young scientist awards for her research in biosynthesis of biofuels and pharmaceuticals.[1]
Chang received her B.S. in biochemistry and B.A. in French literature from the University of California, San Diego, in 1997.
She then moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow (1997-2000) and M.I.T./Merck Foundation Predoctoral Fellow (2000-2002). She earned her Ph.D. in 2004 under the direction of JoAnne Stubbe and Daniel G. Nocera. During her graduate work, Chang studied proton-coupled electron transfer processes in ribonucleotide reductase enzymes, and demonstrated the first direct evidence of the radical transfer pathway of class I RNRs.[2] [3] [4]
Following graduate school, she conducted research as a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Berkeley with Jay Keasling (2004-2007). At Berkeley, Chang studied enzyme-catalyzed reactions, demonstrating that by expressing plant P450 enzymes in bacteria like E. coli, the E. coli could be engineered to produce terpenoids, a class of natural products often found in drugs.[5] [6] Chang began her independent career at UC Berkeley in 2007.
Michelle was born in San Diego, California, to Chinese immigrant parents from Taiwan.[14] She is married to her colleague in the College of Chemistry, Christopher Chang.[15]
Chang's scientific papers are listed on her group's website.