From microbiomes to biofactories

我们都知道，现代世界依赖于将石油提炼成从能源(例如汽油)到材料(例如塑料、农药和药品)的一切。然而，这一进步也带来了严重的环境成本，从产生气候变化的温室气体(GHGs)到其他降低生活质量的污染物。事实是，我们不能继续仅仅依赖石油这样的不可再生资源，而不破坏我们未来的成功和地球的健康。问题不是石油峰值，而是找到一种可持续的方法，从我们的环境中获取能源和材料，将环境成本降至最低。虽然有许多技术解决方案正在讨论中，包括传统和可再生能源发电、下一代交通运输和智能电网设计，但更自然的解决方案可能隐藏在我们周围。在我们感官的极限之外，存在着一个无限多样的微生物世界，延伸到每一个可以想象的栖息地，并在强大的极端条件下茁壮成长。35亿多年来，相互作用的微生物群落一直在推动能量和物质的转换，创造并维持地球上的生存条件。因此，尽管自然界中的绝大多数微生物仍未被培养，但它们代表着几乎无限的遗传信息和代谢潜力的储存库。通过利用微生物群落的力量，我们可以实施我们需要的解决方案，以扭转数百年来人类造成的环境破坏，并演变出更可持续的生活方式。该项目使用基于微生物生物传感器和环境DNA的创新搜索功能来构建生物工厂，推动可持续和选择性的生物质转化为能源和材料。我们将创造一条新的学习曲线，可以通过新兴的公共和私营部门伙伴关系转化为可扩展的流程流，以建设我们的全球未来。我们的生物技术创新涉及并行深度设备挖掘与云计算方法相结合，以恢复和定义微生物群落新陈代谢的催化和调控网络。这些设备可以被编程为微生物联合体，这些微生物联合体被设计用于联合生物加工，以生产商品化学品和材料。微生物生物工厂可根据本地输入和产品配置进行调整，并且对过程扰动(包括有毒中间体和最终产品抑制)更具健壮性。从海洋、采矿和能源部门的角度来看，生物工厂可直接应用于资源管理、环境监测和生物修复。从林业、废水处理和生物精炼行业的角度来看，从生物质生产能源和材料的生物工厂可以推动整合的生物过程，同时满足减少碳排放的需求。

We all know the modern world depends on refining oil into everything from energy (e.g. gasoline) to materials (e.g. plastics, pesticides and pharmaceuticals). However, this progress also has serious environmental costs from the production of climate changing greenhouse gases (GHGs) to other pollutants that degrade the quality of life. The truth is that we cannot continue to rely solely on a nonrenewable resource like oil without undermining our future success and the health of the planet. The problem is not about peak oil, it is about finding a sustainable way to harvest energy and materials from our surroundings that minimizes environmental cost. While there are a number of technological solutions being discussed, including conventional and renewable power generation, next generation transportation, and smart grid design, more natural solutions may be hidden all around us. Beyond the limits of our senses exists an infinitely diverse microbial world extending into every imaginable habitat and thriving under powerful extremes. For over 3.5 billion years, interacting microbial communties have been driving energy and material tranfromations that create and sustain planetary living conditions. As a result, although the vast majority of microbes in nature remain uncultivated, they represent a virtually limitless reservoir of genetic information and metabolic potential. By harnessing the power of microbial communities we can implement the solutions we need to reverse centuries of human induced environmental damage and evolve a more sustainable way of life. This project uses an innovative search function based on micobial biosensors and environmental DNA to construct Biofactories driving sustainable and selective biomass conversion to energy and materials. We will create a new learning curve that can be translated through emerging public and private sector partnerships into scalable process streams to build our global future. Our biotechnology innovation involves parallel deep device mining combined with cloud computing approaches to recover and define catalytic and regulatory networks underlying microbial community metabolism. These devices can be programmed into microbial consortia engineered for consolidated bioprocessing to produce commodity chemicals and materials. Microbial biofactories are tunable to local inputs and product profiles, and more robust to process perturbations including toxic intermediates and end product inhibition. From an ocean, mining and energy sector perspective, biofactories have direct application to resource management, environmental monitoring and bioremediation. From a forestry, wastewater treatment and biorefining sector perspective, biofactories producing energy and materials from biomass can drive consolidated bioprocesses while fulfilling the demand for reduced carbon emissions.