Harness optogenetic control and real-time analysis of chemicals production in bioreactors

利用光遗传学控制和生物反应器中化学品生产的实时分析

• 批准号: 2273034
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2273034
• 关键词: Harness; optogenetic; control; real; time

The UK chemical industry is vitally important to the UK economy, with annual sales over £50bn, employing 158,000 people and is one of the UK's largest exporting industries with a positive trade balance. Since around 8% of fossil fuel consumption is used to produce chemicals (including pharmaceuticals), society needs new technologies to manufacture the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and materials essential to modern life, in ways that are decoupled from fossil fuels. Alternative biomanufacturing routes will allow virtually any carbon containing material to be converted into these modern-day essentials. Building this 'High Value Bioeconomy' is at the core of research programmes in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. This PhD studentship contributes to this vision by developing innovative fermentation platforms for the bio-based production of fine and speciality chemicals using engineered microbial strains and optogenetic feedback control. The project is set in the Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology SYNBIOCHEM which has set up fully integrated and automated platforms for microbial strain engineering for the production of fine and speciality chemicals.1This is an exciting project that seeks to harness optogenetic control and real-time analysis of chemicals production in bioreactors by setting up feedback control of metabolic pathway flux through light-dependent transcriptional control during fermentation. The student will get experience of state-of-the-art synthetic biology methods in microbial strain engineering, biological parts engineering and characterisation, chemicals production through laboratory fermentations, the use of innovative mass spectrometry methods to sample product build up in the headspace of fermentations and control of the outcome of these fermentations through optogenetic feedback control with AI/machine learning components. The PhD student based in Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) and the SYNBIOCHEM Synthetic Biology Research Centre in the MIB will be co-supervised by Professor Nigel Scrutton, Prof Eriko Takano and Dr Sam Hay, with expert scientific/technical support from Senior Experimental Officers Dr Derren Heyes and Dr Kat Hollywood. The student will be trained in broad aspects of 'wet' biotechnology, including synthetic biology, microbial strain bioengineering, molecular biology, innovative mass spectrometry and analytics, and also 'dry' science including AI/machine learning and broader aspects of computational coding for bioreactor feedback control. This project would suit individuals interested in future careers in bioengineering, chemicals production, and industrial biotechnology.This PhD project will exploit new ways of working by providing training in a variety of approaches relevant to the Bioenergy and Industrial Biotechnology theme. This will include lab-based skills in strain bioengineering, design, build and testing of optogenetic protein components, data processing and statistical analysis, HTP analytical methods, bioreactor design and engineering, and control loop engineering. This will provide the PhD student with the ability to use and apply quantitative data-driven approaches to more fully understand biological questions and apply these to scale up/production challenges. In addition to the training the research project goals/outputs in themselves will exploit new ways of working, as they will provide innovative tools and technological approaches for the production of high-value fine chemicals and materials

英国化学工业对英国经济至关重要，年销售额超过500亿英镑，雇用158，000人，是英国最大的出口行业之一，贸易顺差。由于约8%的化石燃料消耗用于生产化学品（包括药品），社会需要新技术来生产现代生活所必需的药品，化学品和材料，并与化石燃料脱钩。替代生物制造路线将允许几乎任何含碳材料转化为这些现代必需品。建立这种“高价值生物经济”是曼彻斯特生物技术研究所研究项目的核心。这个博士研究生通过开发创新的发酵平台，利用工程微生物菌株和光遗传反馈控制，以生物为基础生产精细和特种化学品，从而实现这一愿景。该项目位于曼彻斯特合成生物学中心SYNBIOCHEM，该中心已建立了用于生产精细和特种化学品的微生物菌株工程的完全集成和自动化平台。1这是一个令人兴奋的项目，旨在通过建立通过光的代谢途径通量的反馈控制来利用生物反应器中化学品生产的光遗传控制和实时分析。在发酵过程中依赖转录控制。学生将获得最先进的合成生物学方法在微生物菌株工程，生物部件工程和表征，通过实验室发酵的化学品生产，使用创新的质谱方法对发酵顶部空间中的产品进行采样，并通过AI/机器学习组件的光遗传反馈控制控制这些发酵的结果。曼彻斯特生物技术研究所（MIB）的博士生和MIB的SYNBIOCHEM合成生物学研究中心将由奈杰尔教授Scrutton，Eriko Takano教授和Sam Hay博士共同监督，高级实验官员Derren Heyes博士和Kat Hollywood博士提供专家科学/技术支持。学生将接受“湿”生物技术的广泛方面的培训，包括合成生物学，微生物菌株生物工程，分子生物学，创新质谱和分析，以及“干”科学，包括AI/机器学习和生物反应器反馈控制的计算编码的更广泛方面。该项目将适合对生物工程，化学品生产和工业生物技术未来职业感兴趣的个人。该博士项目将通过提供与生物能源和工业生物技术主题相关的各种方法的培训来探索新的工作方式。这将包括菌株生物工程，光遗传蛋白组分的设计，构建和测试，数据处理和统计分析，HTP分析方法，生物反应器设计和工程以及控制回路工程的实验室技能。这将为博士生提供使用和应用定量数据驱动方法的能力，以更充分地了解生物学问题，并将其应用于扩大规模/生产挑战。除了培训之外，研究项目目标/产出本身将探索新的工作方式，因为它们将为高价值精细化学品和材料的生产提供创新工具和技术方法。