CYANOFACTORY

"Design, construction and demonstration of solar biofuel production using novel (photo)synthetic cell factories"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'CyanoFactory brings together ten selected leading, highly complementary European partners with the aim to carry out integrated, fundamental research aiming at applying synthetic biology principles towards a cell factory notion in microbial biotechnology. The vision is to build on recent progress in synthetic biology and develop novel photosynthetic cyanobacteria as chassis to be used as self-sustained cell factories in generating a solar fuel. This will include the development of a toolbox with orthogonal parts and devices for cyanobacterial synthetic biology, improvement of the chassis enabling enhanced growth and robustness in challenging environmental conditions, establishment of a data warehouse facilitating the modelling and optimization of cyanobacterial metabolic pathways, and strong and novel bioinformatics for effective data mining. To reach the goal, a combination of basic and applied R&D is needed; basic research to design and construct the cyanobacterial cells efficiently evolving H2 from the endless resources solar energy and water, and applied research to design and construct the advanced photobioreactors that efficiently produce H2. Biosafety is of highest concern and dedicated efforts will be made to address and control cell survival and death. The aim, to develop a (photo)synthetic cell factory, will have an enormous impact on the future options and possibilities for renewable solar fuel production. The consortium includes academic, research institute and industry participants with the direct involvement of two SMEs in the advanced photobioreactor design, construction and use. Purpose-designed, specifically engineered self-sustained cells utilising solar energy and CO2 from the air, may be the mechanisms and processes by which we generate large scale renewable energy carriers in our future societies. CyanoFactory offers Europe the possibility to take a lead, and not only follow, in these very important future and emerging technologies!'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A pioneering European consortium has launched a research project on blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria that are adapted by synthetic biology approaches to produce hydrogen as an alternative biofuel.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The EU-funded http://www.cyanofactory.eu/ (CYANOFACTORY) project brings together 10leading research groups from Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The partners include two small to medium-sized enterprises, two research institutes and six universities. They aim to introduce new genetic circuits into cyanobacteria.

These aquatic microorganisms can generate hydrogen as a side product of photosynthesis. However, the produced hydrogen quickly degrades before it is released from the cells. To produce larger quantities at faster rates, cyanobacteria need to be engineered to prevent the chemical conversion of the produced biohydrogen.

Synthetic biology approaches, therefore, have a central role in the CYANOFACTORY project. By exploiting the knowledge of well-established biochemical processes and gene functions, highly specific genetic modifications were introduced to the photosynthetic organisms to produce biohydrogen. As cyanobacteria will carry foreign genes, particular attention was paid to safety.

CYANOFACTORY partners have inserted genes encoding more efficient enzymes and down regulated genes for the unnecessary chemical conversion of the produced hydrogen. Strains were acclimatised to increase their tolerance to the chemicals they produce and the fluctuating growth conditions to which they will be exposed in outdoor photobioreactors.

For the case of accidental leakage of cyanobacteria from photobioreactors into the environment, a suicide mechanism was introduced. This programmed cell death is based on pairs of toxins and antitoxins existing in the cells of these aquatic microorganisms. The toxin moiety, acting only within the cyanobacteria cells, is harmless to humans.

The final step of the CYANOFACTORY project will be the construction of a network of interconnected 100-litre photobioreactors that are flat enough for microorganisms to get enough light. This system will enable project partners to validate hydrogen production parameters determined so far in the small-scale laboratory experiments. Also, potential manufacturing bottlenecks will be identified.

Many research groups around the world are investigating potential new sources of biofuels. The CYANOFACTORY project focuses on biohydrogen synthesis that will not compete with the production of food nor have an adverse impact on the environment. The synthesis of biohydrogen with cyanobacteria requires little more than microbial cells, sunlight and a biohydrogen-capturing system.