EFRI-HyBi: Bioengineering a System for the Direct Production of Biological Hydrocarbons for Biofuels

摘要PI名称：杰奎琳·尚克斯机构：爱荷华州州立大学提案编号：0938157 EFRI：EFRI-HyBi：生物工程一种直接生产生物碳氢化合物用于生物燃料的系统该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案资助（公法111-5）智力价值：该项目将开发新的生物工程技术，以改变目前的液体燃料工业从使用化石燃料，碳原料到使用化学水平与汽油和柴油燃料相同的生物可再生原料，即生物生成的烃。设想的工程系统是基于光合作用的生物体，其将具有将大气CO2化学还原为简单烃（例如，正构烷烃和正构烯烃），利用阳光作为可再生能源。已知这种代谢转化发生在生物圈中的不显眼的地方，例如，植物和昆虫的表皮，以及某些藻类的碳/能量储存机制。目标是进行多学科研究，确定在生物系统中产生这些碳氢化合物的生物催化剂的编码机制和遗传因素。PI将探索使用这些分离的遗传元素来建立生物工程作物或生物工程光合微生物作为生产平台，以实现生产生物碳氢化合物燃料的愿景。这项研究将首次导致有关产生生物碳氢化合物的生物催化剂的结构和机制的基础知识。并且，在生产生物宿主中有效使用这种新型生物催化剂将需要优化生物工程原理，以便将生物催化剂熟练地整合到预先存在的代谢网络中，而不损害宿主的生物能力。更广泛的影响：该项目汇集了生物学家和工程师的合作，展示了如何将基础分子生物学研究与工程学科相结合，以产生新的生物工程生物体，可用作可持续生产平台，以满足全球对新液体生物燃料的需求。这种多学科的团队方法将是一个理想的场所，用于培训和教育新的学生和研究人员的协同作用，这是从生物和工程研究的新组合获得的干部。这种类型的培训，它整合了生物，遗传和生化研究与定量工程广告经济的观点是越来越重要的，以满足21世纪的巨大挑战，在这一世纪，全球人口需求的增加将征税的自然系统的能力，以维持一个可持续的人类社会基础设施。在这种情况下，PI将促进国际合作（国际生物碳氢化合物集团），这将是一个学员交流的场所，这将为学生和博士后提供基于研究的培训的国际视角。此外，他们将纳入一个REU计划，该计划将从主要为代表性不足的群体服务的机构中招募本科生，并通过以研究为基础的教育促进他们的科学和工程发展。因此，PI将能够在这个项目中展示，迎接新出现的全球挑战将需要最聪明的年轻工程师和科学家的新的智力视角和解决方案，这些将需要以日益全球一体化的方式发展。因此，该项目的生物学和工程学学生和博士后所产生的综合研究成果的传播将通过为最佳培训和指导年轻研究人员设定优先顺序，从而改变一个新兴领域，从而影响各自的培训和教育界。

AbstractPI Name: Jacqueline ShanksInstitution: Iowa State UniversityProposal Number: 0938157EFRI: EFRI-HyBi: Bioengineering a system for the direct production ofbiological hydrocarbons for biofuelsThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)Intellectual merit: This project will develop new bio-engineering technology for transforming the current liquid fuel industry from using fossil-carbon feedstocks to using biorenewable feedstocks that are at the chemical level identical to gasoline and diesel fuels, namely biologically-generated hydrocarbons. The engineering system envisioned is a photosynthetic-based organism that will have the bio engineered ability to chemically-reduce atmospheric CO2 to simple hydrocarbons (e.g., n-alkanes and n-alkenes), using sunlight as the source of renewable energy. Such metabolic conversions are known to occur in discreet places in the biosphere, e.g., the epidermis of plants and insects, and as a carbon/energy-storage mechanism by certain algae. The goal is to conduct multidisciplinary studies that will identify the mechanisms and genetic elements that encode the biocatalyst(s) that generate these hydrocarbons in biological systems. The PIs will explore the use these isolated genetic elements to establish to bio-engineer crops or bioengineer photosynthetic microbes as the production platform to realize the vision of producing a biological hydrocarbon based fuel. The proposed research will for the first time lead to fundamental knowledge concerning the structure and mechanism of the biocatalyst that generates biological hydrocarbons. And, the efficient use of this novel biocatalyst in a production biological host will require the optimization of bioengineering principles so as to proficiently integrate the biocatalyst into a pre-existing metabolic network without compromising the biological competence of the host. These later optimizations will integrate concepts of biological control principles with engineering proficiencies.Broader impacts: This project brings together a collaborative of biologists and engineers to demonstrate a paradigm of how fundamental molecular biological research can be integrated with disciplines of engineering to generate new bio-engineered organisms that can be used as a sustainable production platform to meet the global demands for new liquid biofuels. This multidisciplinary team-approach will be an ideal venue for training and educating new cadre of students and researchers of the synergy that is gained from the novel combination of biological and engineering research. This type of training, which integrates biological, genetic and biochemical research with quantitative engineering ad economic perspectives is increasingly important to meet the grand challenges of the 21st century, in which increased global population demands will tax the natural system's ability to maintain a sustainable human societal infrastructure. In this context, the PIs will foster an international collaborative (the International BioHydrocarbon Group) that will be a venue for trainee exchanges, which will provide students and post-docs an international perspective in their research-based training. In addition, they will incorporate an REU program that will recruit undergraduate students from institutions that serve primarily under-represented groups, and foster their scientific and engineering development through research-based education. Thus, the PIs will be able to exhibit within this project that meeting an emerging global challenge will demand new intellectual perspectives and solutions from the brightest young engineers and scientists, and these will need to be developed in an increasingly globally integrated manner. Hence, the dissemination of the combined research outcomes generated by the biological and engineering students and post-docs of the project will impact the respective training and education communities by setting precedence for optimally training and mentoring young investigators and thus transforming an emerging field.