Synthetic and Systems Biology Laboratory

Developing engineered microbial systems that are highly-efficient for the sustainable production of chemicals, fuels, and pharmaceuticals from renewable resources.

The overarching research goal of our laboratory is to develop engineered microbial systems that are highly-efficient for the sustainable production of chemicals, fuels, and pharmaceuticals from renewable resources. In our lab we harness the diversity in microbial metabolism for improved product synthesis by selecting the microbial hosts rationally depending on the substrate to be utilized and the product to be synthesized. 

In addition, we also utilize 13C-Fingerprinting and 13C-Metabolic flux analysis along with other omics techniques to decipher the metabolism of engineered bacterium, and thereby develop novel strategies to further improve the performance of the microbial strains. 

Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology research is interdisciplinary in nature, and involves the fundamentals and techniques derived from Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology. 

Research Topics

  1. Topic 1: Metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for the production of fuels and chemicals.
  2. Topic 2: Utilizing synthetic biology for the translocation of proteins for breaking down polymers or protein production.
  3. Topic 3: 13C-labeling technique for metabolic pathway analysis and flux analysis.
  4. Topic 4: Conversion of lignin derived aromatics into value-added chemicals and pharmaceuticals through synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.
Biorefinery diagram. Biomass, methane, CO2 and organic wastes are processed by a biological "factory" and turned into commodity chemicals, biofuels, pharmaceuticals and flavors or fragrances.
A chain reaction biology diagram
Dots and lines in a diagram. Probably boilogical research related. Or possibly a subway map of London. :-)