Developing novel synthetic biology tools for next generation biologics and biomaterial manufacturing

合成生物学的最新进展现在使我们能够通过释放非天然生物材料的潜力来产生新的工具来生产定制的基于蛋白质的生物制剂或生物材料。在这个项目中，我们将开发新的遗传和基于蛋白质的工具和技术，以控制微生物细胞工厂中大型、难以表达或有毒的蛋白质/酶的生产，以提高产量和质量。这些蛋白质通常具有重要的治疗或生物催化功能，因此具有很高的经济和社会价值。此外，我们将开发和应用这些比例工具来生产具有定制机械或光学功能的可调生物材料，这些功能可能会有军事或广泛的民用用途。例如，保护生物材料可以设计成既能抵抗强烈的机械拉伸，又能非常轻和透明的工程。该项目将为学生提供先进的分子克隆和遗传工具、创新的合成生物学技术、微生物学和生化技能的综合培训。因此，该研究为学生提供了跨学科的研究经验和尖端技术接触，为他/她未来的研究生涯做好准备。学生还可能受益于与我们在生物技术和生物医学领域的一些工业合作伙伴合作的机会。

The recent advances in synthetic biology have now enabled us to generate new tools for producing customised protein-based biologics or biomaterials by unlocking the potential of non-natural living materials. In this project, we will develop new genetic and protein based tools and technologies to control the production of large, difficult-to-express or toxic proteins/enzymes in microbial cell factories with an aim of increased yields and improved quality. These proteins generally possess important therapeutic or bio-catalytic functions and thus are of high economical and societal value. In addition, we will develop and apply these scale tools to produce tunable biomaterials with customised mechanical or optical functionalities that could have either military or wide civil usage. For instance, protection biomaterials may be engineered which is resistant to strong mechano stretch yet still extremely light and transparent.The project will provide the student a comprehensive training of advanced molecular cloning and genetic tools, innovative synthetic biology techniques, microbiology and biochemistry skills. The research thus gives the student an inter-disciplinary research experience and cutting edge technologies exposure to prepare well for his/her future research career. The student may also benefit from the opportunity to work collaboratively with some of our industrial partners in biotechnology and biomedicine.