Hosted by the MIT Innovation Initiative Lab for Innovation Science and Policy
The Lab Lunch is a monthly lunchtime speaker series. This month, join us as we welcome Christian Rückert (Research Scientist, MIT Department of Biology) and Philipp Pfingstag (PhD student, Technical University of Munich School of Management) who will be presenting on innovation in synthetic biology.
Details
Friday, September 30, 2016
12–1:30 pm
Contact
Speaker Abstracts
Christian Rückert
Title: Using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to produce natural pharmaceuticals such as alpha-carotene in Corynebacterium.
Abstract: Interest in vitamins such as carotenoids has increased in recent years, due to the high value these compounds possess in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industry. These compounds not only act as important precursors for essential amino acids in feedstocks, but also have antioxidant and coloring properties as well. In 2010, the carotenoid market was estimated at nearly $1.2 billion and this number is expected to increase to $1.4 billion by 2018 with a compound annual growth rate of 2.3. Despite its high value, current extraction of carotenoids is rather difficult. Extraction from vegetables is highly dependent on seasonal and geographic variability that cannot be controlled and chemical synthesis of these compounds generates hazardous waste that affects the environment. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose to establish Corynebacterium glutamicum as a microbial platform for the production of high-value carotenoids. The establishment of a microbial production platform can lower production costs by using low-costs substrates and reducing toxic byproducts. C. glutamicum, in particular, is a strong candidate as a potential host for several reasons. To implement a fermentation-based production of pigments and high value lipids with a microorganism, the Gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum is chosen as a potential host for several reasons. Foremost, C. glutamicum is well established for the fermentative production of a variety of compounds at an industrial scale. Currently, C. glutamicum strains are used for the industrial production of lysine, glutamate and tryptophan. It is a Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) model organism that is genetically tractable and whose genome has been sequenced and is publicly available. In addition, the regulatory capabilities of this organism are well described. In recent years, first synthetic biology approaches towards a platform strain with a reduced genome and increased genomic stability have been undertaken. We are establishing C. glutamicum as a production platform for lipophilic vitamins and related compounds with health benefits and high value, specifically carotenes. C. glutamicum is a natural producer of carotenoids, synthesizing the C50 carotenoid decaprenoxanthin and its and mono- and diglucoside. This ability indicates that this bacterium is capable to be engineered, in principle, to become a production host for carotenes. Based on the wild-type, there are 5 major targets that have the potential apparent to achieve maximize carotene production in C. glutamicum: A) removal of the genes for decaprenoxanthin (glucoside) synthesis, B) increase of IPP precursor production, C) increase of lycopene precursor production, D) introduction of carotene cyclases for carotene production, and E) engineering of the capability to store carotenes.
Philipp Pfingstag
Title: Lightening the Burden of Knowledge: How tools help DNA engineers push the frontiers of science
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the influence of research tools on technological progress. The frontier of knowledge moves continually outward as new scientific discoveries are made and creates an increasing burden of knowledge for successive generations of innovators. This barrier can be overcome by an increased educational phase, greater specialization, and larger teams. There is little theory on how research tools affect scientific advancement. Synthetic biology provides a promising setting to study these effects. In contrast to traditional, time-consuming, and error-prone genetic engineering tools, the rapidly falling costs of DNA synthesis allows scientists to work on a broader set of problems for a reasonable price. We analyze how new tools help scientists to push the frontier of knowledge forward and how these tools shape the direction of research. We use a difference in differences approach to analyze the innovative step of new synthetic genetic parts compared to traditional DNA chunks and to examine the importance of those parts for the scientific community.