On August 31, 2022, COMSATS Joint Center for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB) hosted a Workshop on Green Biomanufacturing of Bio-based Materials via online and offline, co-moderated by Prof. SUN Jibin, Deputy Director-General of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (TIB, CAS) and Founding Director of CCIB, and Prof. BAI Wenqin, CCIB Coordinator of Joint R&D Group on Bio-based Materials. Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Memon, Executive Director of COMSATS, delivered an opening speech on behalf of COMSATS. Nearly 100 scientists and scholars from COMSATS member states such as China, Pakistan and so on attended the workshop. Aiming at the major needs of green and sustainable development of materials, the workshop set up several topics including monomer synthesis, production and modification of polymeric materials, design and construction of living materials and the application of bio-based materials.

Prof. George CHEN Guo-Qiang from Tsinghua University, introduced his team's work in the development of technology platform of production of polyhydroxyfatty acid esters (PHA) based on industrial Halomonas strains to solve the problems of high energy consumption, easy bacterial contamination, complex process, difficult extraction and high cost in fermentation production in his keynote presentation entitled “Halomonas spp. as Super Microbial Cell Factories and ‘Next Generation Industrial Biotechnology’”. He also prospected the great application potential of PHA in agriculture, medical tissue engineering, aquaculture and sewage treatment. Besides, Prof. ZHONG Chao from Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), CAS, Dr. Farha Masood from COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Dr. ZHU Xinna from TIB and Dr. WANG Dan from Chongqing University, introduced their latest research progress in the design and construction of programmable living materials, synthesis and application of polyhydroxyfatty acid esters, biosynthesis of monomers including succinic acid, organic acids, organic amines, respectively. After the presentation, Prof. BAI Wenqin introduced the international cooperation plan of the Joint R&D Group on Bio-based Materials in the framework of CCIB.