CAREER: Synthetic auxotrophy for the containment of engineered microbes

CBET 1151220/Anderson这个由生物技术、生化和生物质工程计划颁发的美国国家科学基金会职业奖项支持基于合成营养缺陷型工程生物的新型遏制策略的开发。合成营养素为减少利用合成生物学工具开发的新生物在环境中意外释放的风险提供了一种策略。在这项研究中开发的合成营养缺乏症将经过改造，使其生存能力依赖于一种在自然界中未发现的化学物质。因此，这些生物不能在添加了合成化合物的封闭环境之外生存。产生这些合成的营养缺乏症的过程涉及一种新的蛋白质工程策略。它利用一种对有机体的生长至关重要的蛋白质，这种蛋白质由必要的基因编码，并重新连接它与细胞的相互作用，使其只能在合成化合物的存在下生长。随着遏制战略的发展，PI将开发一个互动网站，通过互联网上提供的各种培训资源提供背景和导航。基于一条小径或一系列相关电子内容的想法，该网站将通过教程、测验和多媒体内容引导学生掌握特定的学科领域。这些学科包括合成生物学的技术实现，以及设计理论、基础科学和人类实践问题。这些努力共同解决了生物安全和这一领域的培训等悬而未决的关键问题。

CBET 1151220/ AndersonThis NSF CAREER award by the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering program supports the development of a novel containment strategy for engineered organisms based on synthetic auxotrophy. Synthetic auxotrophs provide a strategy for mitigating the risks of accidental environmental release of novel organisms developed using the tools of synthetic biology. The synthetic auxotrophs developed in this study will be engineered such that their viability is dependent upon a chemical not found in nature. Therefore these organisms cannot survive outside the contained environments to which the synthetic compound has been added. The process for generating these synthetic auxotrophs involves a novel protein engineering strategy. It takes a protein critical to the growth of the organism encoded by an essential gene and rewires its interactions with the cell such that it can only grows in the presence of the synthetic compound. Along with the development of containment strategies, the PI will develop an interactive website that provides context and navigation through the diverse training resources available on the internet. Based around the idea of a Trail, or a series of related electronic content, the site will guide students through tutorials, quizzes, and multimedia content towards mastery of specific subject areas. These subjects include the technical implementation of synthetic biology, as well as design theory, basic science, and issues of human practice. Together these efforts address key unresolved issues of biosafety and training in this field.