Thrust 2: Microbial Metabolic Engineering

While the discovery of new pathways for the synthesis of small molecules with novel structures is a critical first step, significant effort is still required to develop efficient microbial strains in order to produce these molecules in an economically viable manner. The focus of the microbial metabolic engineering thrust is thus to develop microbial platforms using a systems approach to produce small polyketide-based molecules by incorporating new synthesis pathways discovered from Thrust 1 at high yields, high rates, and high product titers. Specifically, the microbial production platforms will have the following properties:

Integration of new pathways into the production platforms Efficient pathway design to allow proper balance between cell growth and product formation Balanced carbon and co-factor flow Maintenance of robust performance even at high product titers Robust cell growth and address scale-up issues with industrial input