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Research

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{Enrico:2018:10.3389/fbioe.2018.00077,
author = {Enrico, Bena C and Grob, A and Isalan, M and Bosia, C and Ceroni, F},
doi = {10.3389/fbioe.2018.00077},
journal = {Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology},
title = {Commentary: Synthetic Addiction Extends the Productive Life Time of Engineered Escherichia coli Populations},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2018.00077},
volume = {6},
year = {2018}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY - JOUR
AB - A commentary on Synthetic addiction extends the productive life time of engineered Escherichia coli populations by Rugbjerg, P., Sarup-Lytzen, K., Nagy, M., and Sommer, M. O. A. (2018). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 2347–2352. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1718622115Bioproduction is the process of producing added-value chemicals on large-scale using cells as biological factories. Cellular burden represents a significant problem in the scaling of fermentation processes from proof-of-concept to long-term cultures, as the load of heterologous gene expression and depletion of the cell intracellular resources cause unpredictable cellular physiological changes that can lead to decreased growth and lower production yields (Borkowski et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2018). One possible cause of the observed decreased bioproduct recovery in many bioprocessing applications is the accumulation of mutations in the employed genetic program. These mutations often lead to loss of production and rise of non-producing populations that grow better and easily overtake the growth of producing cells (Rugbjerg et al., 2018b).In a recent paper in PNAS, Rugbjerg et al. (2018b) developed a strategy to limit the enrichment of non-producing cell populations in bioproduction-employed cell cultures by placing the genes for key growth intermediates under the control of a promoter responsive to the bioproduct being made. This strategy known as product addiction was tested in E. coli engineered to produce mevalonic acid in long-term cultivations (Figure 1).
AU - Enrico,Bena C
AU - Grob,A
AU - Isalan,M
AU - Bosia,C
AU - Ceroni,F
DO - 10.3389/fbioe.2018.00077
PY - 2018///
SN - 2296-4185
TI - Commentary: Synthetic Addiction Extends the Productive Life Time of Engineered Escherichia coli Populations
T2 - Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2018.00077
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/60319
VL - 6
ER -