Engineering Metabolic Channels as a New Approach to Microbial Chemical Manufacture

Abstract

Our long-term goal is to use tools from molecular biology to engineer multi-enzyme metabolic complexes, mimicking the physical forms ubiquitous in nature. The direct coupling between sequential enzymatic reactions, through either static or dynamic interactions, offers the promise of eliminating these production barriers as it reduces the distance between enzyme active sites and favors sequential reactions over diffusion into the bulk. Therefore, the objective of these studies is to engineer synthetic metabolic complexes by exploiting the assembly mechanisms of natural systems to spatially organize enzymes that participate in sequential reaction steps. We expect that by developing a generic set of tools to co-localize metabolic pathways, we will overcome traditional bottlenecks that limit the commercial viability of microbial factories.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA548814

Entities

People

  • Matthew P. DeLisa

Organizations

  • Cornell University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amino Acids
  • Assembly
  • Biology
  • Biosensors
  • Cells
  • Chemistry
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Escherichia Coli
  • Metabolic Pathways
  • Metabolites
  • Molecular Biology
  • Production
  • Protein-Protein Interactions
  • Proteins
  • Small Molecules
  • Standards

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology