Modular manufacturing to enable flexible, on-demand production of a range of target chemicals.

Engineering Biology

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

Modular manufacturing to enable flexible, on-demand production of a range of target chemicals.

Engineering Biology Objectives & Technical Achievements

Development of commercial systems for on-demand manufacturing of commodity and high-value chemicals.

The ideal system will include on-demand capabilities for both upstream (production) and downstream (purification) elements of the process.

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.	Assembled sets of proteins that can completely degrade sustainable feedstocks. Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the system to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products.	Engineered microbial consortia with predictable composition, dynamics and function, to feed off of sequential byproducts in an (almost) closed-loop system.	Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data. Analytics tools and approaches to develop flexible manufacturing processes. Widely adopted methods for defining reproducible workflows that can be used by cloud laboratories to embed protocols for implementation, characterization, and verification and validation of components, pathways/circuits, subsystems, cells, consortia, and multicellular organisms. Modular field production facilities that can accommodate many manufacturing protocols. Establish life cycle assessments to determine efficiency, sustainability, and feasibility of protocols and processes.

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.

Assembled sets of proteins that can completely degrade sustainable feedstocks.

Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the system to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products.

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

Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data.

Analytics tools and approaches to develop flexible manufacturing processes.

Widely adopted methods for defining reproducible workflows that can be used by cloud laboratories to embed protocols for implementation, characterization, and verification and validation of components, pathways/circuits, subsystems, cells, consortia, and multicellular organisms.

Modular field production facilities that can accommodate many manufacturing protocols.
Establish life cycle assessments to determine efficiency, sustainability, and feasibility of protocols and processes.

Develop hosts or consortia that can generate multiple products from a single process.

The goal of this Objective is to generate product streams which can easily be separated, or modified, to produce different target products, such as by changing an environmental condition or one biological component.

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. Community-level, metagenome editing.	Assembled sets of proteins that can completely degrade sustainable feedstocks. Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the system to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products. Regulatory components that allow the user to easily switch between different target products.	Ability to exert tight control over pathways (such as through dynamic metabolic engineering) that are not being used in production. Engineered microbial consortia with predictable composition, dynamics, and function, to feed off of sequential byproducts in an (almost) closed-loop system. Adaptable hosts optimized for production of multiple products.	Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data. Modeling and analytics tools for building systems with multiple objectives 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.

Community-level, metagenome editing.

Assembled sets of proteins that can completely degrade sustainable feedstocks.

Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the system to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products.

Regulatory components that allow the user to easily switch between different target products.

Ability to exert tight control over pathways (such as through dynamic metabolic engineering) that are not being used in production.

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

Adaptable hosts optimized for production of multiple products.

Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data.

Modeling and analytics tools for building systems with multiple objectives and constraints.

Engineer off-the-shelf hosts and microbial communities that can rapidly adapt and produce a target product(s) at high yield and high concentration.

The goal of this objective is to enable production hosts that can rapidly adapt to different feedstocks, culture conditions, or toxic products and do so in increasingly closed-loop systems.

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. Community-level, metagenome editing.	Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the community to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products.	Engineer fast growing organisms that can rely on a variety of feedstocks. Engineered microbial consortia with predictable composition, dynamics, and function, to feed off of sequential byproducts in an (almost) closed-loop system. Ability to exert tight control over pathways (such as through dynamic metabolic engineering) that are not being used in production. Reliable strategies for microbial community assembly that promote desired community composition and high-levels of productivity. Engineered host organisms that can be stored without freezing and easily shipped. Engineered hosts that produce fewer (or no) toxic by-products.	Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data. Automation strategies for assessing community composition and function dynamically. Modular field production facilities that can accommodate many manufacturing protocols.

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.

Community-level, metagenome editing.

Regulatory components (including sensors and networks) that program the community to adapt to the feedstock, intermediates, and side products.

Engineer fast growing organisms that can rely on a variety of feedstocks.

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

Ability to exert tight control over pathways (such as through dynamic metabolic engineering) that are not being used in production.

Reliable strategies for microbial community assembly that promote desired community composition and high-levels of productivity.

Engineered host organisms that can be stored without freezing and easily shipped.

Engineered hosts that produce fewer (or no) toxic by-products.

Novel analytics tools to enable prediction and manipulation of holistic microbial ecosystem function by incorporating both biological and environmental data.

Automation strategies for assessing community composition and function dynamically.

Modular field production facilities that can accommodate many manufacturing protocols.

Footnotes

The goal of this Aim is to reduce transportation costs of both feedstocks and products to improve economic feasibility, especially of lower-value chemicals like biofuels.

Last updated: June 19, 2019 Back