Kobkul Laoteng received her doctorate (D.Sc.) in Biotechnology from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand in 1999. She was awarded for the Taguchi Prize 2000 for outstanding doctoral degree thesis in the field of biotechnology from the Thai Society for Biotechnology. Since 2000 she has worked as a researcher at National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand. She was appointed a Director of Functional Ingredients and Food Innovation Research Group in 2019, and a Director of Service Platform for Food and Functional Ingredients (FoodSERP), NSTDA, in 2023. She also established the BIOTEC Bioprocessing Facility (BBF), a food manufacturer, for accelerating research utilization. She currently holds the Acting Deputy Executive Director, Research and Development Bioscience and Biotechnology for Industry.

Dr. Laoteng’s expertise lies in microbial lipid metabolism and functional ingredient production through synthetic biology, applied systems biology, industrial bioprocessing and scale up. She has strong experience in translational research for promoting technology transfer to industrial applications. In 2008, she received awards from L’Oreal Thailand for “Women in Science 2008 fellowship (Life Science)” with the support of the Thai National Commission for UNESCO, and from School of Bioresources and Technology, KMUTT, for “Outstanding Alumni”. She has published over 75 international, peer-reviews articles, and filed over 67 patents/petty patents, trade secrets and industrial prototypes. She has contributed to scientific community, i.e., Committee of Thai Cosmetic Cluster, Department of Industry Promotion (2016-2018); The Thai Society for Biotechnology Committee (2014-2016); Technical Sub-committee on Innovative Products for Biotechnology, Thai Industrial Standards Institute (2020-prsent); Board member of Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB), Systems and synthetic biotechnology division (2014-2016) and Associate Editor, Editorial Board of Microbial Cell Factories, Springer Nature (2023-present)