Metabolic Engineering

Systems and Synthetic Biology of Microorganisms for Improved Strain Design

Our group focuses on using systems and synthetic biology technology to develop better tools to design and construct production strains for biofuels and chemicals. Our main focus is on improving molecular tools for photosynthetic organisms to enable more sustainable production of petroleum replacement products. The use of photosynthetic microorganisms, like cyanobacteria and algae, for metabolic engineering has several potential advantages such as: low cost inputs (light and carbon dioxide), higher photosynthetic efficiencies than crop plants and no competition for arable land or with the food supply.

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Research

Trichodesmium erythraeum

Sustainable Cyano

Engineering more sustainable alternatives for biofuel and chemical development through cyanobacteria.

Genetic Toolbox

Improving strain engineering with more robust and recombination techniques.

Molecular Characterization

Characterization of new strains and their interactions with the environments.

Populations Modeling

Understanding the complex interactions with simulations of both inter- and intra-strain symbiology.