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

- 学习，理解和量化使藻类物种成为生物精炼类型应用的良好候选者的特性/性状-理解藻类细胞代谢并识别可以增加基于藻类的生物精炼的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识别有利于/优化多个产品流的协同生成。尽管许多藻类生物质转化技术最近已经商业化（例如，生物柴油生产、干和湿藻类生物质转化技术等），显然，在藻类生物加工的商业可行性方面仍然存在重大的经济和技术障碍。为此，正在追求基于藻类的生物精炼的概念，以便能够产生二级（和三级）发酵产物流，以尝试利用可以由藻类产生的广泛的化学品。了解藻类代谢及其对不同环境和生物加工条件的反应是设计和优化藻类生物精炼厂的一个组成部分。该项目的目的是开发一种结合多尺度建模、代谢工程和湿实验室实验的综合方法，以便：（i）研究不同环境和生物加工条件下的藻类细胞代谢（ii）识别环境条件（即，培养基组成、补料时间表、渗透压），这些因素导致所利用的分解代谢途径发生变化并影响产物产量和多样性（iii）将代谢建模、（总体）灵敏度分析和实验设计相结合，以获得快速、成本有效，可靠和稳健的模型辅助测试，用于筛选多种藻类物种和选择更适合工业规模生物精炼应用的物种（iv）使用系统生物学和模型分析技术设计和优化细胞培养基/条件和进料策略，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.