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

该项目由生物医学中心的系统与合成生物学项目和CBET的生物技术、生化和生物质工程项目共同资助，旨在为在活细胞中高效生产非天然分子贡献一套合成生物学工作流程。其具体目标是生产与现有燃料性能相匹配的新型生物燃料，同时克服它们在烟尘和氮氧化物形成方面的限制。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。该项目还将为加州大学伯克利分校现有的REU项目做出贡献。结果将通过跨学科国际期刊上的出版物广泛传播。从长远来看，拟议活动对社会的主要潜在好处将是用来自可再生资源的燃料取代现有的基于石油的燃料。跨国SynPath项目遵循设计、合成和分析的经典工程方法，探索微生物中的新陈代谢路径，以生产临时生物燃料。重点将是开发生产碳氢化合物的新代谢途径，并确定生物燃料生产中的限速步骤，以便糖可以有效地转化为先进的生物燃料。这项拟议的工作还将创造可用于调节和优化生物燃料生产途径的设备和模块。这个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.