BIO’s “Amaizing Microbes: Synthetic Biology Emerges as Key to Biofuels Future” highlights synbio, drop in fuels

in Georgia, the organizers of the upcoming BIO annual convention (Atlanta, May 18-21) have prepared an excellent summary of the advancing role of synthetic biology in the development of advanced biofuels, titled “Amaizing Microbes: Synthetic Biology Emerges as Key to Biofuels Future.”

The article dramatically quotes MIT’s Drew Endy:  “There is no technical barrier to synthesizing plants and animals, it will happen as soon as anyone pays for it,” and highlights efforts by companies such as Gevo, Amyris and LS9 to pioneer designer fuels to produce microbes that secrete drop-in fuels such as green diesel, green gasoline and butanol, while consuming plant cellulose for energy.

“Some of the initial efforts in synbio focused on Clostridia such as Clostridium acetobutylicum,” the article adds. “This bacterium can ferment sugars into butanol and ethanol, and could perhaps be modified to secrete cellulases. C. acetobutylicum and other Clostridia can digest lignin, cellulose fiber, starch, sugar and other biomass. The article also  highlights efforts to produce renewable fuels from modified e.coli bacteria.

Part of the $500 million funding from BP for the Energy Biosciences Institute in California is devoted to synbio research. The article notes that when certain bacteria consume sugars, they produce naturally produce fatty acids, similar at a molecular level to diesel fuel. Genetic modification of the microbe leads a synthetic equivalent to diesel.

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