Directed Co-evolution of Next Generation Biohybrids for Energy Conversion

用于能量转换的下一代生物混合体的定向协同进化

• 批准号: EP/Z000440/1
• 负责人: Jenny Zhang
• 金额: $ 221.83万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FZ000440%2F1
• 关键词: Directed; Co; evolution; Next; Generation

Biological-material hybrid systems are increasingly important in medicine, biotechnology and energy. In particular, microbial biohybrids offer unique advantages for sustainable energy conversion (e.g. scalability and product versatility), but their under-performances curtail their application and impact. State-of-the-art approaches to biohybrid research are slow and confined, with many hidden antagonistic interactions at the bio-material interface to overcome.Here, I aim to create a ground-breaking approach that directly targets the creation, identification, and characterisation of synergistic microbial-material interactions to enable a step-change in generating green energy biohybrids that are high-performing, robust and scalable. Towards this, I will i) develop new methodologies to generate large targeted libraries of key biohybrid components (the electrode, cells and charge carriers); ii) pioneer the powerful concept of directed co-evolution for bio-material engineering. Unlike classical directed evolution where only biological elements are optimised, I will iteratively select for high performing bio-material partnerships under stringent criteria. When these outcomes are compared against those from conventional screening, the identification of synergistic, antagonist or purely independent bio-material interactions will be possible. I will then iii) characterise these partnerships to fill large knowledge gaps within the field to understand how synergism can be designed, instead of found.I will employ cyanobacterial hybrids for solar-electricity generation as model systems, targeting final stable photocurrents of near the top theoretical value 2.4 mA/cm2 (>50-fold above typical systems). This work sets the stage for the transformation of other biohybrids and composite functional materials, and the opening up of a new field: the directed co-evolution of hybrid systems.

生物材料混合系统在医学，生物技术和能量中越来越重要。特别是，微生物生物杂种为可持续能源转换（例如可扩展性和产品多功能性）提供了独特的优势，但其表现不佳削弱了其应用和影响。生物杂交研究的最先进方法是缓慢而局限的，在生物材料界面上进行了许多隐藏的拮抗相互作用以克服。在这里，我旨在创建一种开创性的方法，以直接针对创建，识别和表征协同的微生物材料相互作用的表征，以启用较高的绿色能量和较高的绿色能量，从而启动较高的绿色能量，从而是较高的。为此，我将开发新的方法，以生成大型靶向生物杂化成分（电极，电池和电荷载体）的靶向库； ii）开拓生物材料工程联合进化的有力概念。与仅优化生物学元素的经典定向演化不同，我将在严格的标准下迭代选择以高性能生物材料伙伴关系。当将这些结果与常规筛查的结果进行比较时，可以鉴定协同，拮抗剂或纯粹独立的生物材料相互作用。然后，我将以这些合作伙伴关系来填补该领域内的巨大知识差距，以了解如何设计协同作用，而不是找到。我将采用蓝细菌混合体作为模型系统，以最终的稳定光电为目标，将最终的稳定光电归因于最高理论值2.4 ma/cm2（> 50 ma/cm2（> 50-FOLD）上方）。这项工作为其他生物杂志和复合功能材料的转化奠定了基础，以及新领域的开放：混合系统的定向共同进化。