S150: Rapid Metabolic Pathway Construction and Optimization in Yeast for Production of Fine and Specialty Chemicals

Lygos is developing metabolic pathways in yeast for the production of fine and specialty chemicals. Given the current financial climate, it has become increasingly important to target small-molecule products that can be commercialized in a short timeframe and in a 'capital light' manner. Using techno-economic models, we have developed a series of heuristics that help downselect target products, identifying those that can be quickly constructed and scaled. We then employ high-throughput cloning and screening technologies to quickly optimize the pathways and improve product yield, titer, and productivity metrics. We will present various aspects of our approaches as relate to our first target small-molecule product.