ABSTRACT: In order to reduce carbon emissions and construct sustainable society, it is very important to construct sustainable biorefineries, which produce biofuel/biochemical from biomass. Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), which integrates enzyme production, saccharification and fermentation into a single process, is a promising strategy for effective bioproduction. One of the key technologies to develop microbial cell factories for CBP is cell surface engineering, which is a powerful tool to express proteins such as enzymes on the cell surface without loss of their activities. For instance, the display of cellulolytic enzymes on the surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has accomplished direct ethanol production from cellulosic biomass. We have developed various cell surface display systems in yeast, bacteria and fungus and showed the direct fermentation of biomass. We have also developed a novel synthetic bioengineering approach to employ a combination of computer simulation and metabolic analysis to design novel metabolic pathways suitable for target chemicals production. Combination of a cell surface displayed enzyme and an intracellular metabolic engineering is a very effective approach to develop cells with novel fermentation ability for industrial applications.
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Yamada, R., Hasunuma, T., Kondo, A. (2013) Endowing non-cellulolytic microorganisms with cellulolytic activity aiming for consolidated bioprocessing., Biotechnology Advances, 31(6), 754-763
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Hasunuma, T., Okazaki, F., Okai, N., Hara, K.Y., Ishii, J., Kondo, A. (2013) A review of enzymes and microbes for lignocellulosic biorefinery and the possibility of their application to consolidated bioprocessing technology., Bioresourse Technology , 135, 513-522
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Hara, K.Y., Araki, M., Okai, N., Wakai, S., Hasunuma, T., Kondo A. (2014) Development of bio-based fine chemical production through synthetic bioengineering, Microbial Cell Factories, 13(1): 173
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Hasunuma, T., Ishii, J., Kondo, A. (2015) Rational design and evolutional fine tuning of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biomass breakdown., Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 29: 1-9
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Tanaka, T., Kondo, A. (2015) Cell surface engineering of industrial microorganisms for biorefining applications., Biotechnology Advances, 33, 1403-1411
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Kawaguchi, H., Hasunuma, T., Ogino, C., Kondo, A. (2016) Bioprocessing of bio-based chemicals produced from lignocellulosic feedstocks., Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 42: 30-39
Akihiko Kondo
Professor, Director of Biorefinery Center
Kobe University
Team Leader, Cell Factory Research Team, Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN (Yokohama)
Department of Chemical Science and Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University
1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
A. Kondo got his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Kyoto University in 1988. He started his academic career at Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan as an associate professor. Then he moved Kobe University in 1995 and he was full professor in 2003. In 2007, Kobe University established Biorefinery Center headed by A. Kondo as a director, and he is also leading the Biomass Engineering Program at RIKEN as a team leader from 2012.
A. Kondo developed several biomass pretreatment technologies, cell surface display systems for yeast, bacteria and fungus, metabolic pathway design methods, metabolic analysis technologies, microbial cell factories for production of biofuels and various chemicals from biomass, cyanobacteria for production of starch, oil and chemicals from CO2. He also developed bio-nanoparticles for drug delivery and magnetic nanoparticles for bio-separation and analysis. He has been the project leader of various big research programs of Japan. Especially he launched a big 10 year project “Innovative BioProduction Kobe” as director, which is supported by Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology, Creation of Innovation Centers for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Areas, MEXT, Japan. From 2010,
A. Kondo was appointed as editor of the Journal of Biotechnology and editorial board members of 12 journals such as Biotechnology for Biofuels, Bioresource Technology, Microbial Cell Factories, FEMS Yeast Research, Journal of Biological Engineering, Metabolic Engineering Communications, etc.
He has published more than 480 peer reviewed international papers.