A new way to control microbial metabolism
Microbes can be engineered to produce a variety of useful compounds, including plastics, biofuels, and pharmaceuticals. However, in many cases, these products compete with the metabolic pathways that the cells need to fuel themselves and grow. To help optimize cells’ ability to produce desired compounds but also maintain their own growth, MIT chemical engineers have devised a way to induce bacteria to switch between different metabolic pathways at different times. These switches are programmed into the cells and are triggered by changes in population density, with no need for human intervention. “What we’re hoping is that this would allow more precise regulation of metabolism, to allow us to get higher productivity, but in a way where we minimize the number of interventions,” says Kristala Prather, the Arthur D. Little Professor of Chemical Engineering and the senior author of the study. This kind of switching allowed the researchers to boost the microbial yields of...