Engineering Microbial Consortium/Combination to Convert CO2/Waste Stream into Useful Chemicals using a Synthetic Biology Approach

该项目属于碳捕获和利用(CCU)的范畴，即将温室气体二氧化碳转化为化学合成的有用原料。该项目不是使用物理化学方法来捕获二氧化碳，并使用基于金属的催化剂将二氧化碳转化为有用的化学品，而是利用生物系统在碳捕获、碳浓缩和碳利用方面的自然能力。具体地说，我们感兴趣的是探索生物CCU中乙酸菌和相关细菌菌株的生物技术潜力。除了单一培养，该项目还探索在顺序发酵中使用微生物组合或两种微生物。在这个项目中，学生将(1)开发设计上述微生物菌株的分子工具，(2)应用代谢工程/定向进化/合成生物学来定制/微调这些微生物用于化学生产的特性，以及(3)设计利用这些微生物的工业流程，并评估生物CCU的技术经济学。

This project falls under the umbrella of carbon capture and utilization (CCU), i.e., to turn a greenhouse gas CO2 into a useful feedstock for chemical syntheses. Instead of using a physico-chemical approach to capture CO2 and to transform CO2 into useful chemicals using metal-based catalysts, the project capitalizes on the natural ability of biological systems in carbon capture, carbon concentration and carbon utilization. Specifically, we are interested in exploring the biotechnological potentials of acetogens and related bacterial strains in biological CCU. In addition to mono-culture, the project also explores the use of microbial consortium or two microorganisms in sequential fermentation. In this project, the student will (1) develop molecular tools for engineering the aforementioned microbial strains, (2) apply metabolic engineering/directed evolution/synthetic biology to tailor/fine-tune the properties of these microorganisms for chemical production, and (3) design industrial processes utilizing these microorganisms and evaluate the techno-economics of biological CCU.