Research

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Synthetic Biology underpins advances in the bioeconomy

Biological systems - including the simplest cells - exhibit a broad range of functions to thrive in their environment. Research in the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology is focused on the possibility of engineering the underlying biochemical processes to solve many of the challenges facing society, from healthcare to sustainable energy. In particular, we model, analyse, design and build biological and biochemical systems in living cells and/or in cell extracts, both exploring and enhancing the engineering potential of biology. 

As part of our research we develop novel methods to accelerate the celebrated Design-Build-Test-Learn synthetic biology cycle. As such research in the Centre for Synthetic Biology highly multi- and interdisciplinary covering computational modelling and machine learning approaches; automated platform development and genetic circuit engineering ; multi-cellular and multi-organismal interactions, including gene drive and genome engineering; metabolic engineering; in vitro/cell-free synthetic biology; engineered phages and directed evolution; and biomimetics, biomaterials and biological engineering.

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Jiménez:2019:10.1111/1751-7915.13425,
author = {Jiménez, A and Muñoz-Fernández, G and Ledesma-Amaro, R and Buey, RM and Revuelta, JL},
doi = {10.1111/1751-7915.13425},
journal = {Microbial Biotechnology},
pages = {1293--1301},
title = {One-vector CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering of the industrial fungus Ashbya gossypii},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13425},
volume = {12},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii is currently used for the industrial production of vitamin B2. Furthermore, the ability of A. gossypii to grow using low-cost substrates together with the inexpensive downstream processing makes this fungus an attractive biotechnological chassis. Indeed, the production in A. gossypii of other high-added value compounds such as folic acid, nucleosides and biolipids has been described. Hence, the development of new methods to expand the molecular toolkit for A. gossypii genomic manipulation constitutes an important issue for the biotechnology of this fungus. In this work, we present a one-vector CRISPR/Cas9 system for genomic engineering of A. gossypii. We demonstrate the efficiency of the system as a marker-less approach for nucleotide deletions and substitutions both with visible and invisible phenotypes. Particularly, the system has been validated for three types of genomic editions: gene inactivation, the genomic erasure of loxP scars and the introduction of point mutations. We anticipate that the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system for A. gossypii will largely contribute to facilitate the genomic manipulations of this industrial fungus in a marker-less manner.
AU  - Jiménez,A
AU  - Muñoz-Fernández,G
AU  - Ledesma-Amaro,R
AU  - Buey,RM
AU  - Revuelta,JL
DO  - 10.1111/1751-7915.13425
EP  - 1301
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 1751-7915
SP  - 1293
TI  - One-vector CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering of the industrial fungus Ashbya gossypii
T2  - Microbial Biotechnology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13425
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31055883
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/70316
VL  - 12
ER  -
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