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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{Xu:2020:10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.002,
author = {Xu, X and Liu, Y and Du, G and Ledesma-Amaro, R and Liu, L},
doi = {10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.002},
journal = {Trends in Biotechnology},
pages = {779--796},
title = {Microbial chassis development for natural product biosynthesis},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.002},
volume = {38},
year = {2020}
}

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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Engineering microbial cells to efficiently synthesize high-value-added natural products has received increasing attention in recent years. In this review, we describe the pipeline to build chassis cells for natural product production. First, we discuss recently developed genome mining strategies for identifying and designing biosynthetic modules and compare the characteristics of different host microbes. Then, we summarize state-of-the-art systems metabolic engineering tools for reconstructing and fine-tuning biosynthetic pathways and transport mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the future prospects of building next-generation chassis cells for the production of natural products. This review provides theoretical guidance for the rational design and construction of microbial strains to produce natural products.
AU  - Xu,X
AU  - Liu,Y
AU  - Du,G
AU  - Ledesma-Amaro,R
AU  - Liu,L
DO  - 10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.002
EP  - 796
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 0167-7799
SP  - 779
TI  - Microbial chassis development for natural product biosynthesis
T2  - Trends in Biotechnology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.01.002
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32029285
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/76864
VL  - 38
ER  -