In this section

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{Yunus:2018:10.1016/j.ymben.2018.07.015,
author = {Yunus, IS and Jones, PR},
doi = {10.1016/j.ymben.2018.07.015},
journal = {Metabolic Engineering},
pages = {59--68},
title = {Photosynthesis-dependent biosynthesis of medium chain-length fatty acids and alcohols},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2018.07.015},
volume = {49},
year = {2018}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Cyanobacteria can directly channel atmospheric CO2 into a wide range of versatile carbon products such as fatty acids and fatty alcohols with applications including fuel, cosmetics, and health products. Works on alcohol production in cyanobacteria have so far focused on either long (C12-C18) or short (C2-C4) chain-length products. In the present work, we report the first synthetic pathway for 1-octanol (C8) biosynthesis in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, employing a carboxylic acid reductase and C8-preferring fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase. The first engineered strain produced 1-octanol but exhibited poor productivity and cellular health issues. We therefore proceeded to systematically optimize the strain and cultivation conditions in order to understand what the limiting factors were. The identification of optimal promoters and ribosomal binding sites, in combination with isopropyl myristate solvent overlay, resulted in a combined (C8-OH and C10-OH) titer of more than 100mg/L (a 25-fold improvement relative to the first engineered strain) and a restoration of cellular health. Additionally, more than 905mg/L 1-octanol was produced when the strain expressing sfp (phosphopantetheinyl transferase) and car (carboxylic acid reductase) was fed with octanoic acid. A combination of feeding experiments and protein quantification indicated that the supply of octanoic acid from the introduced thioesterase, and possibly also native fatty acid synthesis pathway, were the main bottlenecks of the pathway.
AU  - Yunus,IS
AU  - Jones,PR
DO  - 10.1016/j.ymben.2018.07.015
EP  - 68
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1096-7176
SP  - 59
TI  - Photosynthesis-dependent biosynthesis of medium chain-length fatty acids and alcohols
T2  - Metabolic Engineering
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2018.07.015
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30055323
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/63516
VL  - 49
ER  -