Society for Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

The intent of this session is to highlight recent breakthroughs in producing chemical compounds in photosynthetic microbes. Such organisms have great potential as production platforms for a wide range of pharmaceuticals, specialty and fine chemicals as well as biofuels because they do not require fermentable sugars or arable land for growth. Photosynthetic microbes have already been engineered to produce a number of different chemical compounds. However, the systems need to be significantly improved to enhance production levels. This session will focus on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology efforts to guide the engineering of a range of photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria and algae.

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