Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | BB/L004356/1 | |
| Title | 13TSB_SynBio- Novel Bacterial Hosts for Biobutanol Production | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Not Energy Related 50%; Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Production of transport biofuels (incl. Production from wastes)) 50%; |
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| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | BIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES (Biological Sciences) 100% | |
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 100% | |
| Principal Investigator |
Prof N (Nigel ) Minton No email address given Centre for Biomolecular Sciences University of Nottingham |
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| Award Type | Research Grant | |
| Funding Source | BBSRC | |
| Start Date | 01 May 2013 | |
| End Date | 31 October 2014 | |
| Duration | 18 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £246,156 | |
| Industrial Sectors | Transport Systems and Vehicles | |
| Region | East Midlands | |
| Programme | Technology Strategy Board (TSB) | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Prof N (Nigel ) Minton , Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham (99.998%) |
| Other Investigator | Dr K (Klaus ) Winzer , Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham (0.001%) Dr Y (Ying ) Zhang , Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham (0.001%) |
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| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | WHO WILL BENEFIT? The overall aim of this project is to enhance and extend the capabilities of solventogenic bacteria in terms of fuel and chemical production from cost effective feedstocks. As this is an Industrial Partnership, the primary beneficiary is GBL. They will directly commercialise all useful strains that emerge from the project and will have first refusal on any foreground intellectual property that arises. Both parties have extensive global networks of existing commercial contacts and strategic partners. For example, GBL have partnerships with Guangxi Jinyuan Biochemical and Lianyungang Union of Chemicals in China. Nottingham have partnerships/ collaborations with EBI, Lanxess and Genencor (N America), Evonik, Universities of Munich, Ulm and Berlin (Germany), TMO Renewables Ltd, Invista and Unilever (UK), Metabolic Explorer Ltd, INRA and CNRS (France), Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai and Tsinghau, China), the Mumbai Institute of Chemical Technology (India) and LanzaTech (New Zealand). Working together, the partnership will seek to maximise these links for the benefit of both parties. The successful commercialization of anticipated outputs will have a rapid and global impact for both humanity and the environment. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution, provide an alternative to the use of food or farm resources for the production of low cost low carbon fuels and chemicals. It is therefore of benefit to society, ultimately impacting on health and well-being. HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT? Project outcomes will allow improved fermentation process economics and product diversity, thus encouraging more rapid and wide spread adoption of clostridia-based butanol fermentation as a process to produce high volumes of low cost butanol as a chemical commodity and potentially as a biofuel. The partnership are anticipated to directly benefit from the outputs of the project through their commercial adoption via the pipeline established by GBL to scale-up and commercially produce fuel and chemical products by clostridia fermentation. Additionally the partnership intends to explore strategic licensing deals with third party organisations. These will take the form of up front and milestone payments as well as ongoing royalty streams. The successful scale-up and commercialization of processes will assist the UK and Europe in meeting challenging 'greenhouse' gas reduction targets, and contribute to indirectly to food security. The generation of butanol from cellulosic feedstocks will additionally impact on reducing reliance on fossil reserves, and therefore increase national fuel security. The use of low carbon fuels to displace petrol reduces localized pollution from transport, and has a positive influence on public health and thus national productivity, ie, EtOH petrol blends reduce smog formation (the American Lung Association credits ethanol-blended petrol with reducing smog-forming e missions by 25% since 1990), and toxic exhaust emissions (CO emissions by as much as 30%, toxic content by 13% (mass) and 21% (potency), and tailpipe fine particulate matter emissions by 50%). Our programme is tailored to allow definitive benefits to be realized within the project's timeframe. Thus, our target is to improve the productivity of the existing GBL process, allowing its immediate transfer to commercial operations in China. The project will provide the opportunity for staff working directly on the project, together with indirectly affiliated postgraduate students, to become trained in the strategically important areas of 'Synthetic Biology' and 'Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy'. These skills will be translatable to many different areas outside of butanol-producing clostridia, enhanci |
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| Abstract | This project is a collaboration between the Clostridia Research Group (CRG) at Nottingham and Green Biologics Ltd (GBL). GENOME SEQUENCING & ANNOTATION: CRG has just completed sequencing of the C. pasteurianum ATCC 6013 genome. Data will be used to finalise the assembly and complete annotation of the genome. DEVELOPMENT OF A METABOLIC MODEL: GBL will use the annotated genome sequence to construct a metabolic model. Engineered strains will be used to validate the model. The model will be used as a predictive tool for future manipulations. PLASMID TRANSFORMATION: Existing CRG modular shuttle vectors will be used for gene transfer experiments. Optimisation of transformation will be by both the empirical alteration of electroporation parameters, and by instigating strategies designed to circumvent any barrier posed by restriction-modification systems identified in the genome. GENE KNOCK-OUT/KNOCK-IN: CRG will use the genome sequence data and transformation system to identify any knockout genes encoding enzymes involved in by-product formation. The genes will initially be knocked out using ClosTron technology. Thereafter, using novel in-frame deletions methods. BUTANOL PRODUCTION: In parallel, CRG will modify expression of enzymes involved in butanol formation, replacing C. pasteurianum 'butanol genes' with synthetic equivalents (identified from hyper-butanol producing clostridia). In addition, endogenous promoters will be replaced with stronger promoters. STARCH UTLISATION: GBL have identified a novel operon containing four hydrolytic enzymes involved in starch metabolism. Synthetic genes and appropriate orthogonal promoters and terminators will be designed and assembled in BioBrick format using GBlock assembly. These will be integrated into the 6013 genome using ACE. FERMENTATION PERFORMANCE TESTING: GBL will test fermentation performance with both wildtype & engineered strains at lab-scale with glucose, glycerol and starch. |
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| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 01/12/14 | |
