Dr Jin Zhang

Dr Jin Zhang is a Postdoctoral Researcher within the School of Agriculture, Food, and Wine, focusing her research on understanding the performance of yeast and their interactions within challenging environments, particularly evident in winemaking processes. Her projects are centred on the identification and characterisation of various yeast species and the genes responsible for their unique properties. Utilising high-throughput screening methods of yeast collections, including environmental isolates and mutant libraries, Dr Zhang aims to identify genetic differences between strains that correlate with specific phenotypes. Her studies are aimed at unravelling the adaptive mechanisms that enable yeast to thrive in grape must and successfully complete alcoholic fermentation. This valuable insight is then applied to guide strain development, leading to isolate novel strains possessing desirable oenological traits.
With over a decade of experience in the field of wine microbiology, Dr Zhang has been involved in numerous fermentation and molecular biology projects. In 2014, she completed her PhD in wine microbiology, focusing on the investigation and characterisation of highly nitrogen-efficient wine yeast strains. Since then, she has undertaken projects ranging from high-throughput fermentations to assess new grape cultivars, to exploring microbial cell-cell signalling mechanisms during wine fermentation and their impact on population dynamics and fermentation performance. Additionally, Dr Zhang endeavours to isolate novel yeast strains from diverse environments to uncover their biological properties and their potential applications in the industry.