Research

Overview

Working at the interface of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, while incorporating key elements of applied/industrial microbiology along with biochemical and bioprocess engineering, our lab focuses on engineering novel biotechnologies for the microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks to useful biofuels and biochemicals. Our research, which integrates both fundamental and applied studies, is comprised of several key thrust areas, including: 1) pathway engineering to develop ‘cell factories’ capable of synthesizing novel and non-natural bioproducts, 2) developing generalizable strategies for carbon and energy conservation to enhance product titers and yields, 3) engineering robust microbes with industrially-relevant phenotypes (e.g., product tolerance, complex substrate utilization), 4) tools development and metabolic engineering of photosynthetic cyanobacteria, 5) engineering and fundamental investigation of synthetic microbial consortia, 6) investigating and engineering small molecule transporters associated with nutrient uptake and product efflux, and 7) developing integrated bioreactor and/or downstream bioprocessing strategies to support economical biochemical production. Ultimately, we seek to overcome key technological barriers limiting the potential of bio-derived fuels and chemicals.

Metabolic Engineering of ‘Cell Factories’

Through the rational engineering of their metabolism, microbial ‘cell factories’ can serve as versatile biocatalysts for converting biomass and other renewable feedstocks into sustainable fuels, plastics and monomers, bulk chemicals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and more. Microbial metabolic engineering, meanwhile, has been greatly aided and accelerated by continued advancements in systems and synthetic biology. Our research seeks to develop biotechnological innovations that support the efficient, microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks into a range of sustainable bioproducts. Our approach emphasizes achieving improved fundamental understanding en route to surmounting key technological barriers and performance bottlenecks that currently limit practical applications.

Bioprocess Engineering for Renewable Fuels and Chemicals Production

In addition to developing better ‘bugs’, we are also interested in engineering better bioprocess with which to enable enhanced production of renewable biofuels and biochemicals. To this end, our group has also worked to i) identify, develop, and characterize novel materials and strategies for biofuel and biochemical separation/purification, and ii) engineer integrated bioreactor designs that enable the productivity-limiting effects caused by inhibitory products to be overcome via their in situ recovery. Other ‘bioprocess’ topics of interest include the development of iii) thermochemical processes to convert waste and/or photosynthetic microbial biomass to useful gas and liquid products and iv) photobioreactor designs to maximize CO2 removal and bioproduction metrics by photosynthetic microbes.

Click below to learn more about our current projects.

NSF, CBET-2401035: RAISE: CET: Enhancing Microbial CO2 Valorization toward Biofuels by a Dual-Fiber System Powered by Visible Light

NSF, CBET-2148629: Improving the performance and efficiency of heterotrophic carbon fixation through strain engineering and membrane-based CO2 delivery