Dr. Feng Ju is an Assistant Professor at the program of Sustainable and Environmental Engineering (SEE) & Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), School of Engineering, Westlake University. He received his PhD’s degree in Environmental Engineering from HKU in 2015, followed by a 3-year postdoctoral experience at EAWAG, Switzerland. His research interests span multidisciplinary fields from environmental biotechnology, microbiology to metagenomics and bioinformatics, with a focus on engineered microbiomes and antibiotic resistance. He received the 2018 Young Scientist Awards for Microbial Ecology by Ecological Society of China (ESC), 2016 Young Scientist Awards by Hong Kong Institution of Science (HKIS), and the 2014-2015 Award for Outstanding Research Postgraduate Student by HKU and etc. He serves as the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology, an editorial board member for Engineering, the official journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and several SCI journals, an international expert reviewer for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and a member of International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME), International Water Association (IWA) and ESC, and a reviewer for over 15 SCI journals.

Microbiome is an emerging field of research on microbial communities (i.e., microbiota) and their ‘theatre of activity’ (i.e., microbial structure elements, metabolites and environmental conditions). The central questions include but are not limited to: (i) how to comprehensively and efficiently identify microbial communities? (ii) how the community structured or assembled to determine its function? (iii) how to precisely design and targeted regulate the community function? As the mainstream branch and methodology of microbiome research, metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples. As the key to microbial mark matter in nature, metagenomics opens the door for discovering new species, new enzymatic resources, new active substances (e.g., antibiotics) and for exploring microbially-driven biogeochemical cycles and the origin and evolution of life.

Our group is interested in the development and application of meta-omics approaches (e.g., metagenomics and metatranscriptomics) and complementary techniques (e.g., stable isotope probing and microfluidics) for the study of microbes and microbiomes. Our lab missions are to Elucidate the Nexus between Environmental Microbiome, Biotechnology, and Human Health, to Develop New Meta-Omics and Molecular Tools for Functional Microbiome Analysis, and to Engineer Microbiota for Improved Bioremediation, Biosynthesis and Bioresourcization.

1. Zhang Z, Peng H, Yang D, Zhang G, Zhang J, Ju F*. 2022. Polyvinyl chloride degradation by a bacterium isolated from the gut of insect larvae. Nature Communication. 13: 5360

2. Wang H, WangYB, Zhang GQ, Zhao Z, Ju F*. 2022. Temporal Dynamics and Performance Association of the Tetrasphaera- Enriched Microbiome for Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal, Engineering (accepted)

3. Zhang Z, Zhang G, Ju F*. 2022. Using Culture-Enriched Phenotypic Metagenomics for Targeted High-Throughput Monitoring of Clinically-Important Fraction of theβ-Lactam Resistome. Environmental Science & Technology. 56(16):11429-11439

4. Yuan L, Wang YB, Zhang L, Alejandro P, Zhou J, Smets B, Bürgmann H, Ju F *.2021. Pathogenic and indigenous denitrifying bacteria are transcriptionally active and key multi-antibiotic resistant playersin wastewater treatment plants. Environmental Science & Technology. 55(15): 10862-10874

5. Shuai M#, Zhang G#, Ju F*, Zheng J* et al. 2022. Human gut antibiotic resistome and progression of diabetes. Advanced Science. e2104965 (equal contribution)

6. Gao H, Zhao Z, Zhang L, Ju F*. 2022. Cyanopeptides restriction and degradation co-mediate microbiota assembly during a freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom (CyanoHAB). Water Research. 220: 118674

7. Yang XY#; Zhang L#, Ju F* et al. 2022. Micro(nano)plastic Size and Concentration Co-Differentiate Nitrogen Transformation, Microbiota Dynamics, and Assembly Patterns in Constructed Wetlands. Water Research. 220: 118636 (equal contribution)

8. Zhang L, Yin W, Wang C, Zhang AJ, Zhang H, Ju F *. 2021. Untangling Microbiota Diversity and Assembly Patterns in the World's Largest Water Diversion Canal. Water Research. 117617

9. He Y, Zhang Y, Ju F*. 2022. Metformin Contamination in Global Waters: Biotic and Abiotic Transformation, Byproduct Generation and Toxicity, and Evaluation as a Pharmaceutical Indicator. Environmental Science & Technology. 56, 19, 13528-13545

10. He Y, Jin H, Gao H, Zhang GQ, Ju F*. 2021. Prevalence, production, and ecotoxicity of chlorination-derived metformin byproducts in Chinese urban water systems. Science of the Total Environment. 151665

11. Zhang RS#, He YZ#, Yao LX#, Chen J, Zhu SH, Rao XX, Tang PY, You J, Hua GQ, Zhang L, Ju F*, Wu LF*. 2021. Metformin chlorination byproducts in drinking water exhibit marked toxicities of a potential health concern. Environment International. (146)106244.

12. Ju F, Beck K, Yin X, McArdell Christa, Singer H, Johnson D, Zhang T, Buergmann H *. 2019. Wastewater treatment plant resistomes are shaped by bacterial composition, genetic exchange and up-regulated expression in the effluent. The ISME Journal. 13 (2), 346:1

13. Ju F, Wang Y, Zhang T*. 2018. Bioreactor microbial ecosystems with differentiated methanogenic phenolbiodegradation and competitive metabolic pathways unraveled with genome-resolved metagenomics. Biotechnology for Biofuels 11(1), 135

14. Ju F, Lau, F, Zhang T. 2017. Linking microbial community, environmental variables and methanogenesis in anaerobic biogas digesters of chemically enhanced primary treatment sludge. Environmental Science & Technology. 51 (7), 3982-3992

15. Ju F, Li B, Ma LP, Wang YB, Huang DP, Zhang T. 2016. Antibiotic resistance genes and human bacterial pathogens: co-occurrence, removal, and enrichment in municipal sewage sludge digesters. Water Research. 91, 1-10

16. Ju F, Zhang T. 2015. Bacterial assembly and temporal dynamics in activated sludge of a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant. The ISME Journal. 9: 683-695

17. Ju F, Zhang T*. 2015. 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing data mining of microbial diversity and interactions. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 99(10): 4119-4129

18. Ju F, Zhang T. 2015. Experimental design and bioinformatics analysis for the application of metagenomics in environmental sciences and biotechnology. Environmental Science & Technology. 49(21), 12628-1264

19. Li B#,·Ju F#,·Cai L,·Zhang T. 2015. Profile and fate of bacterial pathogens in sewage treatment plants revealed by high-throughput metagenomic approach. Environmental Science & Technology.49 (17), 10492–10502 (equal contribution)

20. Ju F, Xia Y, Guo F, Wang ZP, Zhang T. 2014. Taxonomic relatedness shapes bacterial assembly in activated sludge of globally distributed wastewater treatment plants. Environmental Microbiology.16(8):2421-2432