CAREER: Design, Construction and Characterization of Metabolite Valves

这项拟议的工作将导致开发控制葡萄糖流量的实验工具。葡萄糖阀门将探索一种生化生产的新范式，允许生物量生长和代谢物生产的分离，就像可诱导启动子对重组蛋白质生产所做的那样。这些阀门旨在促进微生物化工厂生产各种有机化合物的生物合成途径的代谢工程。该提案同时包含了基础研究和教育举措。还将开发描述和预测葡萄糖阀行为的数学模型，这将有助于将该实验装置扩展到其他代谢物和生物体。本科生将在课堂和实验室接受教育，课程材料将通过麻省理工学院的开放式课程门户网站提供。此外，拟议的“我做什么”倡议旨在通过对在具有代表性的STEM领域工作的专业人员的一系列采访，向学龄儿童介绍科学和工程密集型职业。

0954986PratherThe proposed work will result in the development of experimental tools to control glucose flux. The Glucose Valve will explore a new paradigm for biochemical production that allows the decoupling of biomass growth and metabolite production in the same way that inducible promoters have done for recombinant protein production. The Valves are intended to facilitate the metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways for the production of a variety of organic compounds in microbial chemical factories. The proposal incorporates both fundamental research and educational initiatives. Mathematical models to describe and predict the behavior of the Glucose Valves will also be developed, which should facilitate the extension of this experimental device to other metabolites and organisms. Undergraduate students will be educated in both the classroom and the laboratory, with course materials being made available through the OpenCourseWare portal at MIT. Additionally, a proposed "What-I-Do" Initiative seeks to introduce school age children to science- and engineering-intensive careers through a series of interviews of professionals working in representative STEM fields.