Research

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Synthetic Biology underpins advances in the bioeconomy

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology. 

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Niehus:2018:10.1186/s13068-018-1010-6,
author = {Niehus, X and Crutz-LeCoq, A-M and Sandoval, G and Nicaud, J-M and Ledesma, Amaro R},
doi = {10.1186/s13068-018-1010-6},
journal = {Biotechnology for Biofuels},
title = {Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica to enhance lipid production from lignocellulosic materials},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1010-6},
volume = {11},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Yarrowia lipolytica is a common biotechnological chassis for the production of lipids, which are the preferred feedstock for the production of fuels and chemicals. To reduce the cost of microbial lipid production, inexpensive carbon sources must be used, such as lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Unfortunately, lignocellulosic materials oftencontain toxic compounds and a large amount of xylose, which cannot be used by Y. lipolytica.Results: In this work, we engineered this yeast to efciently use xylose as a carbon source for the productionof lipids by overexpressing native genes. We further increased the lipid content by overexpressing heterologousgenes to facilitate the conversion of xylose-derived metabolites into lipid precursors. Finally, we showed that theseengineered strains were able to grow and produce lipids in a very high yield (lipid content = 67%, titer = 16.5 g/L,yield = 3.44 g/g sugars, productivity 1.85 g/L/h) on a xylose-rich agave bagasse hydrolysate in spite of toxiccompounds.Conclusions: This work demonstrates the potential of metabolic engineering to reduce the costs of lipid productionfrom inexpensive substrates as source of fuels and chemicals.
AU  - Niehus,X
AU  - Crutz-LeCoq,A-M
AU  - Sandoval,G
AU  - Nicaud,J-M
AU  - Ledesma,Amaro R
DO  - 10.1186/s13068-018-1010-6
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1754-6834
TI  - Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica to enhance lipid production from lignocellulosic materials
T2  - Biotechnology for Biofuels
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1010-6
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/55708
VL  - 11
ER  -
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