S52: BioGTL platform for the conversion of natural gas to fuels and chemicals

Important progress has recently been made toward engineering a number of phototrophic and fermentative microorganisms for biofuels production. Several limitations, most notably the ever-increasing cost and linkage to oil prices of sugar feedstocks, currently prevent the economical production of biofuels from microbial systems. Exploiting inexpensive, domestically abundant carbon feedstocks such as methane represents an attractive strategy towards economically sustainable biofuel production. Calysta has developed a genetic engineering platform for host organisms (methanotrophs) capable of metabolizing methane to a variety of biofuels and biochemicals. The genetic tools enable the rapid implementation of well-characterized pathways to utilize natural gas as a biological feedstock instead of sugar.