Undergraduate Lecture | Choose the best genetic engineering strategy for microbial cell factories, by Yilan Liu

The Chemical Engineering Department is hosting a special undergraduate lecture to choose the best genetic engineering strategy for microbial cell factories.

Abstract: 

We know genetic engineering methods are very important tools for biological research and biomanufacturing. To investigate the function of a target gene, deletion is our common strategy. To engineer microbial cell factories to produce exogenous chemicals, we prefer to insert the functional blocks into microbial genome.  To enhance the title, yield, and productivity of bioproducts, we need elaborate metabolic engineering processes. That is why so many different genetic engineering strategies were developed in the past few decades. Such as, suicide plasmid assisted genome editing methods, FLP/FRT assisted genome editing methods, pop-in/pop-out assisted genome editing methods and also plenty of CRISPR derived strategies (CRISPR/CRISPRi/ CRISPRa/CRISPR- EvolvR/ The CRISPR/Cas-directed evolution (CDE) platform).

In this talk, I will introduce the key concepts of genetic engineering. We will discuss what are genetic engineered microbial cell factories, why we need them and how can they help our sustainable development. I will list and briefly introduce the widely used genetic engineering strategies in microbial cell factories. We will discuss how to choose the best genetic engineering strategy for specific project.