CRISPR/dCAS9 mediated in vivo enzyme engineering in yeast cell factories

Forskningsprojekt, 2018 – 2021

Microbial cell factories are important tools to enable the paradigm shift from a petrol-based industry towards bio-based production regimes. Besides of being more sustainable, these microbial production processes also have to provide cost-competitive production routes compared to current ways of manufacture. New tools and tailored high throughput screening techniques are desperately needed to accelerate microbial strain development to bring more products from lab to market. Enzyme engineering is a key enabling technology within this field to optimize metabolic pathways towards the efficient production of a product of interest. This project is focussed on establishing a new method for targeted enzyme engineering and high throughput screening for high performing enzyme variants. The use of advanced synthetic biology tools will allow for a directed evolution of specific target enzymes in vivo. Intracellular biosensors will be used to screen for enzymes with better performance. The system will be established in the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which was already proven to be a robust production host in various bio-based industrial processes. The concept will be applied for yeast-based production of fatty acids and derived products with pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and industrial applications.