Synthetic Biology Applications In the Rapid Development of Renewable Petroleum™ Products and Technologies

It is widely recognized that sustainable replacements for fossil fuels and chemicals are urgently needed.  By harnessing the efficiency of fatty acid biosynthesis and employing an engineering strategy that places all chemical unit operations within a single whole cell catalyst, LS9 Microrefinery™ Catalysts enable efficient biosynthetic routes to renewable fuels and specialty chemicals that are competitive with existing products even in the absence of subsidies.  Nature offers access to a wide array of chemistries through its remarkably diverse enzymatic machinery;  synthetic biology enables the rapid design, construction, evaluation, and improvement of engineered microbes that incorporate these biocatalytic components.  The engineering of fatty acid metabolism and its diversion into targeted pathways have resulted in the production of esters, alcohols, alkenes, and alkanes.  Renewable carbohydrates are efficiently converted into these immiscible products, using biphasic fermentation systems that enable simple recovery via centrifugation.  This presentation will summarize our approach and accomplishments through a variety of case studies.