S29 Metabolic engineering for products derived from malonyl-CoA
Monday, July 21, 2014: 1:00 PM
Regency Ballroom D, Second Floor (St. Louis Hyatt Regency at the Arch)
Tanya Warnecke Lipscomb, OPXBIO, Boulder, CO
As the demand for fuels and chemicals increases, the biological production of products from renewable feedstocks has become a means of supplementing or replacing petroleum-based products. OPXBIO has engineered strains and bioprocesses for 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.