U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Plant Cell Bioprocess Engineering for Production of Secondary Metabolites

该奖项将支持一项为期两年的合作研究项目，该项目由加州大学戴维斯分校的Dewey D. Y. Ryu教授及其同事、东京大学的Shintaro Furusaki教授以及其他日本大学的同事共同完成。本项目涉及植物生物技术的多学科基础研究。主要的重点将是开发一个知识库，广泛应用于从遗传改良的植物细胞系生产重要的次生代谢物的生物工艺技术。次级代谢物是细胞的代谢产物，对细胞的生长和生存不是必需的，与初级代谢物相反，初级代谢物是必需的。一些次生代谢物已被发现是非常有用的药物、着色剂和调味剂、化妆品成分和其他重要的经济产品。日本人在这一领域的研究和发展处于领先地位。在这个项目中，美国和日本的合作教师在植物生物技术、植物生物化学、植物遗传学、植物细胞生物学和生物化学工程方面拥有共同的专业知识。该研究项目将侧重于(1)在生物反应器大规模细胞培养条件下，植物细胞的生化设计和遗传构建，以高效生产具有医疗和经济意义的次级代谢物；(2)设计开发适合大规模植物细胞培养的新型生物反应器系统；(3)植物细胞生物反应器系统的基础生物工艺工程研究和优化次生代谢产物的生物工艺优化。该项目预计将在美国和日本科学家之间建立一个植物生物技术领域的合作研究计划和密切的工作关系。它的目的是为促进我们对植物生物技术一般原理的理解做出重大贡献，这些原理可以转化为生物技术工程实践的有用应用，特别是在生产具有经济和医学重要性的次生代谢物方面。

This award will support a two-year cooperative research project between Professor Dewey D. Y. Ryu and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, and Professor Shintaro Furusaki, University of Tokyo, and co-workers at other Japanese universities. The project involves multi-disciplinary basic research in plant biotechnology. Major focus will be on the development of a knowledge base having broad application to bioprocess technology for the production of important secondary metabolites from genetically improved plant cell lines. Secondary metabolites are cellular metabolic products not essential to the cell's growth and survival, in contrast to primary metabolites, which are. Some secondary metabolites have been found to be very useful as medicinals, coloring and flavoring agents, components for cosmetics, and other economically important products. The Japanese are at the forefront in research and development in this area. The collaborating U.S. and Japanese faculty members in this current project have collective expertise in plant biotechnology, plant biochemistry, plant genetics, plant cell biology, and biochemical engineering. The research program will focus on (1) biochemical design and genetic construction of plant cells for efficient production of secondary metabolites of medical and economic importance under bioreactor mass cell cultivation conditions; (2) design and development of a novel bioreactor system suitable for large-scale plant cell cultivation; and (3) fundamental bioprocess engineering studies on the plant cell bioreactor system and bioprocess optimization for the most efficient production of secondary metabolites. This project is expected to establish a collaborative research program and a close working relationship between U.S. and Japanese scientists in the area of plant biotechnology. It aims for a significant contribution toward advancement of our understanding of generic principles of plant biotechnology which can be translated to biotechnology engineering practices for useful application, especially for the production of secondary metabolites of economic and medical importance.