Novel Processes for Biopolymer Production

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0109383SriencThe Principal Investigator's overall objective is to study the biosynthesis of novel types of polyhydroxyalkanoic acids (PHA), which are spatially structured and, therefore, confer specific physical properties to this material. The microstructure will be achieved by periodic alteration of the nutrients supplied to the microorganisms that are capable of PHA synthesis. The different nutrients result in the formation of different precursors for the polymerization reaction and lead to the controlled deposition of homo- and copolymer in spherical granules with architecture structured at the nanometer length scale. Furthermore, the nutrient switching strategy can be designed to generate structure at the individual polymer chain level resulting in block-copolymers that can self-assemble into specific morphologies that could have useful physical properties. This biosynthesis approach will be further developed to generate specific diblock- and tailback-copolymers and their physical properties will be evaluated. In addition to the synthesis of such PHAs with improved value, the biosynthesis of this material will be investigated in the context of anaerobic metabolism of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae extending preliminary studies that demonstrate that anaerobic biosynthesis of PHAs is possible. The combined effort of producing 'smarter' materials of higher value together with metabolic engineering manipulations of the organisms for more efficient production processes could have significant impact on the technology of biodegradable plastics.