Engineering Biology Objectives & Technical Achievements
Develop crops that require little water or fertilizer and can be used to generate biomass designed for eventual electricity production.
Engineering DNA | Biomolecular Engineering | Host Engineering | Data Science |
---|---|---|---|
Plant chromosome synthesis. Synthesis of complex (e.g., repeat) DNA. |
Engineer proteins that improve the water acquisition in plant (aquaporins). Engineer proteins that reduce water loss (uniport aquaporins). |
Improve plant transformation protocols. Reduce generation time of model plant species. |
Risk assessment models for the impact of engineered plants on the surrounding ecology. Methods to capture field data (such as growth, microbe composition) under non-standardized conditions over a long period of time. |
Engineer organisms (including plants, microorganisms, and algae) to more efficiently convert solar light to fix carbon and produce ATP.
Engineering DNA | Biomolecular Engineering | Host Engineering | Data Science |
---|---|---|---|
Plant chromosome synthesis. Synthesis of complex (e.g., repeat) DNA. |
Improve efficiency of extracellular electron transfer from easy-to-grow microbes (e.g., Shewanella). Light energy conversion: engineer microbes and algae 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. Engineer plants with a higher content of lignin and lower cellulose/hemicellulose content to enable greater biomass production. |
Convert extracellular electron transfer of diverse redox potential metals from Geobacter species to Shewanella species. Develop fast-growing, drought-tolerant grasses and trees for specific environments. |
Risk assessment model for the impacts of engineered plants on the surrounding ecology. Methods to capture field data (such as growth, microbe composition) under non-standardized conditions over a long period of time. |