CAREER: Design, Construction and Characterization of Metabolite Valves

0954986Prather提出的工作将导致实验工具的发展，以控制葡萄糖流量。葡萄糖阀将探索一种新的生化生产模式，允许生物质生长和代谢产物生产的解耦，就像诱导型启动子用于重组蛋白生产一样。瓣膜预期用于促进生物合成途径的代谢工程，以便在微生物化工厂中生产各种有机化合物。 该提案包括基础研究和教育举措。还将开发描述和预测葡萄糖阀行为的数学模型，这将有助于将该实验器械扩展到其他代谢物和生物体。本科生将在课堂和实验室接受教育，课程材料将通过麻省理工学院的开放式课程门户网站提供。此外，一项拟议的“我做什么”倡议旨在通过对在代表性STEM领域工作的专业人员进行一系列访谈，向学龄儿童介绍科学和工程密集型职业。

0954986PratherThe proposed work will result in the development of experimental tools to control glucose flux. The Glucose Valve will explore a new paradigm for biochemical production that allows the decoupling of biomass growth and metabolite production in the same way that inducible promoters have done for recombinant protein production. The Valves are intended to facilitate the metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways for the production of a variety of organic compounds in microbial chemical factories. The proposal incorporates both fundamental research and educational initiatives. Mathematical models to describe and predict the behavior of the Glucose Valves will also be developed, which should facilitate the extension of this experimental device to other metabolites and organisms. Undergraduate students will be educated in both the classroom and the laboratory, with course materials being made available through the OpenCourseWare portal at MIT. Additionally, a proposed "What-I-Do" Initiative seeks to introduce school age children to science- and engineering-intensive careers through a series of interviews of professionals working in representative STEM fields.