Products from Methanol by Synthetic Cell Factories
One-carbon (C1) compounds such as methane and methanol are attractive, non-food and low-cost carbon and energy sources for microbial bioprocesses, which can be utilized by specialized groups of microorganisms; the methylotrophs. The aim of the project is to use a Synthetic Biology approach to develop a bacterium that efficiently exploits the biofuel methanol for the production of defined chemicals. The project will encompass the integration of genomic and experimental knowledge from different methylotrophic model organisms to engineer a biotechnologically important bacterial host with new metabolic features. System-level investigations including metabolomics, proteomics and fluxomics will be used to analyze and evaluate the genetically engineered cells with respect to the acquired new properties. The generated knowledge will foster the use of biotechnologically relevant bacteria as a new modular platform for methanol-based production of bulk chemicals and will be conducted i!
n collaboration with Industry Partners.
The 3-year project is funded within the frame of the European FP7 programme “Applying Synthetic Biology principles towards the cell factory notion in biotechnology”
Begin: January 2011 or as agreed upon.
Highly motivated candidates with a track record in the area of Systems Biology/Synthetic Biology are invited to apply.
Contact: Prof. J. Vorholt, Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, HCI H429, 8093 Zürich, vorholt@micro.biol.ethz.ch