This NSF CAREER award by the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering program supports a novel approach to converting lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals that bypasses enzymatic saccharification used in glucose centric processes. The PI hypothesizes that potentially more economical biofuel and biorenewable chemical processes can be developed by converting lignocellulosic materials to levulinic acid instead of glucose, and then using a combination of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to develop microoganisms to efficiently convert levulinic acid into the desired hydrocarbon fuel or chemical. Since levulinic acid can be produced in high yields via the acid hyrolysis of lignocellulose biomass, this route to biofuels and biorenewable chemicals avoids the costly enzymatic degradation steps needed in traditional processes to convert biomass into fermentable sugars.
The research team will use synthetic biology to metabolically engineer a bacterium to catabolize levulinic acid as the sole carbon source for growth and the synthesis of drop-in hydrocarbon fuels. The proposed work will elucidate a previously unknown biochemical pathway, examine methods of engineering catabolism, and evaluate an alternative biomass-to-chemicals process. The proposal builds upon past work to engineer Escherichia coli to overproduce fatty-acid based products and integrates established metabolic modeling, biochemistry, systems biology, and genetic engineering approaches.
The development of sustainable chemical production processes will require the training of a new generation of chemical engineers possessing the ability to apply metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. To meet this challenge, the PI will redesign a laboratory course in biochemical engineering, will continue the development of the iGEM program (international Genetically Engineered Machines) as a model for interdisciplinary research and education at UWMadison. Through iGEM, undergraduate teams design, conduct, and communicate experimental research projects in the field of synthetic biology, and will partner with the NSF-sponsored Delta program to develop educational materials for introducing younger students to the concepts of sustainability, bioenergy, engineering, and synthetic biology.
