Stephan Lane

• Doctorate – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Food Science – 2019
• Master of Science – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Food Science – 2016
• Bachelor of Science – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Molecular and Cellular Biology – 2012

Our research is organized around three primary thrusts:

Valorization of Food Wastes and Agricultural Surpluses

Agricultural processing frequently generates byproducts with limited commercial value or consumer demand. Nonetheless these streams are prime candidates for fermentation feedstocks: using metabolically engineered yeast, we convert low-cost inputs, such as fruit pomace, lignocellulosic biomass, dairy industry byproducts, and emerging agricultural surpluses, into valuable products such as alcohols, organic acids, oils, and commodity chemicals.

Fermentation-Based Production of High-Value Bioproducts

The biosynthetic capacity of engineered microbes enables scalable production of compounds that are otherwise difficult to access, such as rare sugars, fragrances, pigments, and nutraceuticals. In our lab, we design and implement transgenic biosynthetic pathways in yeast to enable efficient production of these molecules.

Development of New Tools, Techniques, and Workflows

Advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping how laboratory research is conducted. Our research applies AI-enabled tools and develops integrated workflows to address challenges in synthetic biology and food science, aiming to improve design efficiency and experimental success.