S29: A systems approach to accelerating bioprocess commercialization

Fermentation of carbohydrate substrates by microorganisms represents an attractive route for the manufacture of industrial chemicals from renewable resources. The technology to manipulate metabolism of bacteria and yeast, including the introduction of heterologous chemical pathways, has accelerated research in this field. However, beyond the initial inventive work there is still a significant hurdle in achieving an economically viable process for commercialization. A systems biology approach can be used to identify and overcome challenges associated with reaching commercial titer, yield, productivity, and purity targets. We will demonstrate how new systems and omics technologies such as Next-Gen sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics can be integrated with metabolic modeling to gain biological insight into the strain that leads to rapid advances in these metrics, and eventually industry-wide approaches to overcoming common challenges in the field.