More than 30 faculty members and students at the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences attended an academic seminar on May 19 that explored emerging developments in environmental microbiome research and the growing role of artificial intelligence in biological innovation.

The seminar was organized by the institute's Innovation Group for Risk Assessment and Green Mitigation Technologies of Emerging Contaminants and featured a presentation by Professor SHU Wensheng of South China Normal University. The event was chaired by researcher YAN Jun.

During his presentation, Prof. SHU outlined recent advances in environmental microbiomics, with particular emphasis on absolute quantitative metagenomics and its applications. Metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples.

Prof. SHU also discussed what he described as an "evolution accelerator," an emerging technology that integrates artificial intelligence with synthetic biology. According to Prof. SHU, the approach combines gene reading and writing technologies, high-throughput screening and AI-assisted analysis to establish an intelligent closed-loop system linking computational design, experimental validation and data feedback. He explained that the system enables researchers to rapidly and systematically optimize enzymes under controlled laboratory conditions.

Prof. SHU noted that such technologies are helping shift biological research from primarily describing natural processes toward predicting and engineering biological functions. He added that the approach is also transforming the development of bio-based products by expanding the ability to design and create new biological capabilities rather than relying solely on the discovery of existing ones. According to him, these advances offer new opportunities for both fundamental research and technological innovation in environmental microbiology.

Following the presentation, Prof. SHU exchanged views with participants on topics including environmental microbiomics, microbial ecology and the mechanisms that drive microbial evolution. Attendees discussed the potential of AI technologies to improve the interpretation of complex microbial datasets and support interdisciplinary research.

Figure 1.Academic seminar on environmental microbiomes held at the Institute of Applied Ecology.