ERASynBio: Synthetic biochemical pathways for efficient production of novel biofuels (SynPath)

该项目由MCB的系统和合成生物学计划以及CBET的生物技术，生物化学和生物质工程计划共同资助，旨在为活细胞中有效生产非天然分子提供合成生物学工作流程。具体目标是生产与现有燃料性能相匹配的新型生物燃料，同时克服其在烟尘和氮氧化物形成方面的局限性。这些成果将推动合成生物学在欧洲和美国的发展，因为它对化学工业中生物精炼方法的发展做出了重大贡献。 在教育方面，调查员参与研究生教育和研究培训。该项目还将有助于建立在加州大学伯克利分校的REU计划。研究结果将通过在跨学科国际期刊上发表的出版物广泛传播。从长远来看，拟议活动对社会的主要潜在好处将是用可再生资源衍生的燃料取代现有的石油燃料。多国SynPath项目遵循设计、合成和分析的经典工程方法，探索微生物中的代谢途径，以生产直接生物燃料。重点将是开发生产碳氢化合物的新型代谢途径，并确定生物燃料生产中的限速步骤，以便将糖有效转化为先进的生物燃料。 拟议的工作还将创建可用于调节和优化生物燃料生产途径的设备和模块。该项目的成功依赖于热力学、化学动力学、微生物生理学、代谢途径工程和酶工程方面的专业知识的整合。

This project, funded jointly by the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program in MCB and the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering Program in the CBET, aims is to contribute a synthetic biology workflow for the efficient production of non-natural molecules in living cells. The specific aim is to produce novel biofuels that match the performance of existing fuels, while overcoming their limitations with respect to soot and nitrogen oxide formation. The outcomes will propel the development of Synthetic Biology in Europe and the US, as it contributes significantly to the development of a bio-refinery approach in the chemical industry. On the educational side, the investigator is involved in graduate education and research training. The project will also contribute to established REU programs at the University of California, Berkeley. Results will be disseminated broadly via publications in interdisciplinary international journals. Long-term, the major potential benefits of the proposed activity to society will be replacement of existing, petroleum-based fuels with fuels derived from renewable resources.The multinational SynPath project follows a classic engineering approach of design, synthesis and analysis to explore metabolic pathways in microorganisms for production of drop-in biofuels. The focus will be on developing novel metabolic pathways for production of hydrocarbons and identify rate-limiting steps in biofuel production so that sugars can be efficiently converted to advanced biofuels. The proposed work will also create devices and modules that can be used to regulate and optimize biofuel production pathways. The success of this project relies on the integration of expertise in thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, microbial physiology, metabolic pathway engineering, and enzyme engineering.