Cell Factories

We explore organisms with interesting and desirable biosynthetic capacity and engineer them to produce useful compounds like fuels, medicines, and materials. We treat cells as chemical factories and apply metabolic engineering to rewire biosynthesis — combining gene knockouts, overexpressions, and combinatorial approaches to test many expression configurations in parallel.

• Bacterial nanocellulose cell factories
• Debaryomyces hansenii
• Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous

We are defining the principles of transferring genetic designs across organisms to enable genetic circuits to be constructed across the tree of life. Our approach avoids developing a parts kit for every new species discovered. Biological systems have an incredible capacity to sense and respond to their environment. We are particularly interested in sensing in the soil.

• Extending Genetic Parts to Other Organisms
• Harnessing the Soil Microbiome

Synthetic biology is built on the predictable design of biological systems. We develop combined wetlab-computational tools that improve genetic engineering workflows. Primarily, we have shown how genomics and transcriptomics can be used in new ways to identify, troubleshoot, and develop targets for genetic engineering.

• Accurate Genomes for Biosecurity and Bioengineering
• Biofoundries
• Curating Synthetic Biology Knowledge
• Transcriptomics to Inform Design

We distribute standardized genetic part kits that enable reproducible synthetic biology across labs and organisms.

• OpenCidar
• Xd MoClo
• Dh MoClo

We develop and share open-source software tools for synthetic biology design, data analysis, and genetic engineering workflows.

• BioHub
• CREATE Biofoundry