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{Awan:2017:10.1038/ncomms15202,
author = {Awan, AR and Blount, BA and Bell, DJ and Shaw, WM and Ho, JCH and McKiernan, RM and Ellis, T},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms15202},
journal = {Nature Communications},
pages = {1--8},
title = {Biosynthesis of the antibiotic nonribosomal peptide penicillin in baker's yeast},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15202},
volume = {8},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Fungi are a valuable source of enzymatic diversity and therapeutic natural products including antibiotics. Here we engineer the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce and secrete the antibiotic penicillin, a beta-lactam nonribosomal peptide, by taking genes from a filamentous fungus and directing their efficient expression and subcellular localization. Using synthetic biology tools combined with long-read DNA sequencing, we optimize productivity by 50-fold to produce bioactive yields that allow spent S. cerevisiae growth media to have antibacterial action against Streptococcus bacteria. This work demonstrates that S. cerevisiae can be engineered to perform the complex biosynthesis of multicellular fungi, opening up the possibility of using yeast to accelerate rational engineering of nonribosomal peptide antibiotics.
AU  - Awan,AR
AU  - Blount,BA
AU  - Bell,DJ
AU  - Shaw,WM
AU  - Ho,JCH
AU  - McKiernan,RM
AU  - Ellis,T
DO  - 10.1038/ncomms15202
EP  - 8
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 2041-1723
SP  - 1
TI  - Biosynthesis of the antibiotic nonribosomal peptide penicillin in baker's yeast
T2  - Nature Communications
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15202
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000400561400001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/48888
VL  - 8
ER  -
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