(326a) Invited Talk: Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Microbial Metabolite Dynamics and Heterogeneity

Biomanufacturing using engineered microbes offers the opportunity to produce renewable fuels, chemicals, and materials. For this technology to be economically viable, engineered microbes must produce target compounds with high titers, yields, productivities, and robustness, especially at large scales. During fermentation, the concentrations of microbial metabolites fluctuate dynamically in response to changes in micro-environment and the fermentation process. Additionally, the inherent cellular noise causes large cell-to-cell variations in metabolic activity, substantially impacting the overall efficiency and yield of bioproduction. In this presentation, I will discuss various synthetic biology tools and methods developed by my group in recent years to measure metabolite dynamics and heterogeneity in bacteria systems. We have further used these tools in combination with metabolite-gene circuits to modulate metabolite dynamics and heterogeneity, achieving enhanced product titers, yields, productivities, and genetic stability across multiple biosynthetic systems. Design principles of these synthetic control tools are useful in other areas of biotechnology, enabling new avenues of research and applications.