More efficient production of (bio)chemicals, bio-based products, and other specialty materials.

Engineering Biology

Enable next-generation production through sustainable, cost-competitive, flexible, and efficient manufacturing processes.

More efficient production of (bio)chemicals, bio-based products, and other specialty materials.

Engineering Biology Objectives & Technical Achievements

Implementation of computational approaches to assemble new systems that consider multiple facets of production.

Including feedstocks, target product, available facilities, biological component characteristics and limitations, among others.

Engineering DNA	Biomolecular Engineering	Host Engineering	Data Science
Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell. Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.	Rapid design and production of custom enzymes and enzyme pathways. Metabolic or protein engineering approaches to enable complete use of all substrate components.	Engineered microbial consortia with predictable composition, dynamics and function, to feed off of sequential byproducts in an (almost) closed-loop system. Development of fast-growing variants of non-model production hosts.	Data integration methodology and approaches to describe and compare system performance. Design-of-experiments approaches to obtain required data to enable prediction. Artificial intelligence and/or machine learning approaches to predict how systems should be assembled considering production goals and constraints.

Engineering DNA

Biomolecular Engineering

Host Engineering

Data Science

Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell.

Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.

Rapid design and production of custom enzymes and enzyme pathways.

Metabolic or protein engineering approaches to enable complete use of all substrate components.

Engineered microbial consortia with predictable composition, dynamics and function, to feed off of sequential byproducts in an (almost) closed-loop system.

Development of fast-growing variants of non-model production hosts.

Data integration methodology and approaches to describe and compare system performance.

Design-of-experiments approaches to obtain required data to enable prediction.

Artificial intelligence and/or machine learning approaches to predict how systems should be assembled considering production goals and constraints.

Enable a broader range of microorganisms to be used in traditional biomanufacturing industries to expand the scope of natural product discovery and production.

Engineering DNA	Biomolecular Engineering	Host Engineering	Data Science
Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell. Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.	Rapid adaptation of enzymes to work in the context of different hosts.	Development of fast-growing variants of non-model production hosts.	Prediction of media components, additives, environmental conditions that promote growth of non-model production hosts from genomic data.

Engineering DNA

Biomolecular Engineering

Host Engineering

Data Science

Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell.

Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.

Rapid adaptation of enzymes to work in the context of different hosts.

Development of fast-growing variants of non-model production hosts.

Prediction of media components, additives, environmental conditions that promote growth of non-model production hosts from genomic data.

Experimental and computational approaches to increase growth rates, yield, and efficiency of production hosts.

Engineering DNA	Biomolecular Engineering	Host Engineering	Data Science
Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell. Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.	Development of regulatory components that enable dynamic regulation to optimally balance growth and production, especially of toxic or high-energy-requiring products.	Ability to engineer non-model production hosts with increased growth rates and improved yield and efficiency, especially under bioproduction conditions.	Computational approaches to classify mutations found in slow-growing production hosts, to define if they are necessary or detrimental for cell growth and processing. Automation approaches to screen new candidate hosts for fast growth and desired production rates.

Engineering DNA

Biomolecular Engineering

Host Engineering

Data Science

Ability to synthesize, edit, assemble, and deliver many genes and regulatory components in a single cell.

Ability to edit genomes of diverse hosts, including microbes, fungi, and protists.

Development of regulatory components that enable dynamic regulation to optimally balance growth and production, especially of toxic or high-energy-requiring products.

Ability to engineer non-model production hosts with increased growth rates and improved yield and efficiency, especially under bioproduction conditions.

Computational approaches to classify mutations found in slow-growing production hosts, to define if they are necessary or detrimental for cell growth and processing.

Automation approaches to screen new candidate hosts for fast growth and desired production rates.

Footnotes

The goal of this Aim is to lower energy usage, lower waste processing, and reduce water use in manufacturing and industrial settings.