Thursday, July 28, 2011: 4:00 PM
Oak Alley, 4th fl (Sheraton New Orleans)
As the demand for fuels and chemicals increases, the biological production of products from renewable feedstocks has become a means of supplementing or even replacing a number of traditionally petroleum-based products. This growing field of bio-refining relies upon the use of microorganisms to convert renewable carbon sources into higher value products. OPXBIO has engineered strains towards the economical production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP), which has been widely recognized as a platform bio-product with several valuable market applications. One such product, the monomer acrylic acid, represents an $8 Billion global opportunity with end-product applications in paints and coatings, textiles, water treatment, and superabsorbent polymers. A key focus of strain development efforts was towards increasing the cellular pools of malonyl-CoA, the first committed intermediate for the 3-HP production pathway. This engineered micro-organism and bioprocess is capable of producing commercially relevant rates, titers, and yields of 3-HP, which enable the large scale production of biologically derived acrylic acid at production costs competitive with petroleum based sources.
See more of: Synthetic biology approaches for metabolic engineering
See more of: Invited Oral Papers
See more of: Invited Oral Papers