Development of a combined mathematical and experimental approach for the design, evaluation and optimization of algae based bio-refinery processes

学习,理解和量化使藻类成为生物精炼厂类型应用的良好候选物种的特征/特征-了解藻类细胞代谢并确定可以提高藻类生物精炼厂产量和盈利能力的代谢和生物过程工程策略-探索藻类的代谢能力并确定有利于/优化多种产品协同生成的环境和过程条件streamsBackground。虽然一些藻类生物质转化技术最近已经商业化（例如，生物柴油生产，干湿藻类生物质转化技术等），但很明显，藻类生物处理的商业可行性仍然存在主要的经济和技术障碍。为此，基于藻类的生物精炼厂的概念正在被追求，以便能够产生二级（和三级）发酵产品流，试图利用藻类可以生产的各种化学物质。了解藻类代谢及其对不同环境和生物处理条件的反应是设计和优化藻类生物精炼厂的重要组成部分。该项目的目的是开发一种综合方法，将多尺度建模、代谢工程和湿实验室实验相结合，以便：(i)研究不同环境和生物处理条件下的藻类细胞代谢；（ii）确定导致所利用的分解代谢途径发生变化并影响产品产量和多样性的环境条件（即培养基组成、喂养时间表、渗透压）；（iii）将代谢建模、（全球）敏感性分析和实验设计结合起来，以便得出快速、具有成本效益、筛选多种藻类物种和选择更适合工业规模生物炼制应用的物种的可靠和强大的模型辅助测试（iv）使用系统生物学和模型分析技术来设计和优化细胞培养基/条件和喂养政策，从而提高产品产量。

-Studying, understanding and quantifying the characteristics/traits that render an algae species a good candidate for bio-refinery type applications-Understanding algae cell metabolism and identifying both Metabolic and Bioprocess Engineering strategies that can increase yields and profitability of algae-based bio-refineries-Exploring the metabolic capabilities of algae and identifying environmental and process conditions that favour/optimize the synergistic generation of multiple product streamsBackground. Although a number of algal biomass conversion technologies have been recently commercialized (e.g., bio-diesel production, dry and wet algal biomass conversion technologies, etc.), it is clear that major economic and technical barriers still exist regarding the commercial feasibility of algal-based bioprocessing. Towards that end, the concept of algae based biorefineries is being pursued in order to enable the generation of secondary (and tertiary) fermentation product streams in an attempt to exploit the wide range of chemicals that can be produced by algae. Understanding algal metabolism and how it responds to varying environmental and bioprocessing conditions is an integral part of designing and optimizing an algae-based biorefinery. The aim of this project is the development of an integrated methodology combining Multi-scale Modelling, Metabolic Engineering and wet-lab experiments in order to: (i) Study algae cell metabolism under varying environmental and bioprocessing conditions (ii) Identify environmental conditions (i.e., media composition, feeding schedule, osmotic pressure) that cause shifts in the utilised catabolic pathways and affect product yields and diversity (iii) Combine metabolic modelling, (global) sensitivity analysis and design of experiments in order to derive fast, cost-effective, reliable and robust model-aided tests for the screening of multiple algal species and the selection of species better suited for industrial scale biorefinery applications (iv) Use of Systems Biology and Model Analysis techniques for the design and optimisation of cell culture media/conditions and feeding policies that lead to improved product yields.