Principal Investigator Kristala Prather
Engineered metabolic pathways are typically sub-optimal, with enzyme activities well-below desired levels. Additionally, competition with endogenous pathways leads to low yields and productivities. Research in this area is focused on the improvement of our rationally designed microbial chemical factories, both through protein engineering and through the development and application of novel biological devices. Our protein engineering efforts are done in collaboration with computational structural biologists, and are focused on both the enhancement of enzyme activity and increased selectivity for the substrates of interest. Novel biological designs are intended to control metabolic flux in order to increased pathway throughput or counter competition with endogenous metabolism.