High-throughput synthesis of large gene clusters (> 10 kilobases).

Engineer enzymes/pathways for production of hydrocarbons, including decarboxylating/decarbonylating enzymes, cofactor changes on enzymes, and new pathways/enzymes that conserve carbon/energy.

Engineer transporters to facilitate fuel export from the cell.

Improving enzymes for deconstruction of cellulosic biomass, including engineering cellulases and ligninases to be functional and stable in complex environments.

Engineer microbes and/or consortia to efficiently express and secrete deconstruction enzymes.

Technoeconomic and life cycle analysis models to determine sustainability of energy production.

Enzyme engineering models.

BioCAD models for designing gene expression.

Edit chromosomes of oil crops to accumulate more and different types of oils.

Engineer fatty acid synthases to produce fuels (fats) of a particular molecular weight.

Engineer oil crops to be drought tolerant and not require significant inputs of fertilizer.

Accurate prediction of factors leading to increased yields for oil crops.

Plant chromosome synthesis.

Synthesis of complex (e.g., repeat) DNA.

Efficient CRISPR systems for plants.

Methods for efficiently editing organelle genomes.

Light energy conversion: engineer enzymes to more efficiently convert solar light to carbon/ATP.

Light capture: expand the range of solar spectrum wavelengths that can be captured by photosynthesis.

Improve CO₂ fixation by reducing 2-phosphoglycolate produced by RuBISCO O₂ fixation.

Nitrogen fixation in plants.

Phosphate solubilization in plants.

Drought-tolerance traits in biomass crops.

Stable gene delivery to all plant tissues via viral vectors for prototyping of genetic designs.

Additional tools for controlling gene expression in plants, including large-scale knockout of unnecessary (for a given application or a particular environment) plant genes and pathways.

Metabolic pathways for producing bioproducts in plants (e.g., non-fuel products that could improve economics).

Methods to target and engineer specific microorganisms in plant microbiomes.

Co-regulation of plant and microbiome genes.

Develop microbiomes to aid nutrient uptake and water retention in soil.

Models for identifying best geographic locations for energy crops.

Data collected at the plant- and field-level to understand growth and productivity.

Satellite imagery of plant productivity, land, and water use.

Technoeconomic and life cycle analysis models to determine sustainability of energy production.

BioCAD models for designing gene expression.

Metabolic flux analysis of engineered organisms.

Synthesize large clusters of genes that encode metabolic pathways for various products (fuels, commodity chemicals, specialty chemicals, etc) ready to be transformed into any microbial host.

Engineer transporters to facilitate fuel export from the cell.

Develop efficient pathways for production of liquid transportation fuels from metabolic intermediates.

Develop metabolic pathways in microbes that will allow them to simultaneously consume aromatic monomers (from lignin) and sugars.

Metabolic flux analysis of engineered organisms.

Models of microbes in bioreactors to predict performance.

Technoeconomic and life cycle analysis models to determine sustainability of energy production.

BioCAD models for designing gene expression.