The Vanderbilt study led by Cornelius Vanderbilt Engineering Professor Jamie Young, Dean and Stevenson Professor of Chemistry John McLean, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences Carl Johnson The team described a new way to quickly characterize biological effects to gene-edit bacteria. This new method allows researchers to consider the consequences of specific gene editing when designing bacteria to produce specific chemicals.
The ultimate goal of this work is to discover the best way to genetically modify blue-green algae called cyanobacteria to produce fatty acid molecules for clean energy. Yang led the work. "The advanced analytical technology developed by McLean Labs will enable our project team to quickly design cyanobacteria and other microorganisms to produce medium-chain free fatty acids in high yields, which are easily converted into fuel," he said.
"We are not exploring one type of gene editing, but exploring multiple bacterial strains with different gene editing to identify which ones are good for the work we want to accomplish-and to understand all the effects of gene editing on the overall biology of bacteria," Mike Lane said. "We can characterize many gene edits or strains in one experiment."
This research may greatly shorten the conversion time of green fuel production, drug discovery, and public research from laboratories to various disciplines.
"The social, environmental and economic benefits of this energy production are huge," McLean said.
In addition, researchers can quickly examine the effects of gene editing on the target and the complete biology of the organism, rather than the traditional examination of examining one molecule at a time. Therefore, researchers can view multiple gene edits at once, thereby shortening the time for synthesis experiments.
"Imagine that the resealable zipper storage bag that grows algae in your home can indeed provide fuel for your energy needs," McLean said. "This is a very long-term result of this research, but we are one step closer to optimizing how bacterial strains produce this fuel."
With expertise and countless state-of-the-art microscope instruments, McLean and his team are continuing to develop new methods to improve the performance and output of the technology.
This work was supported by the Department of Biological and Environmental Research of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The award number is DE-SC00019404. The award number of the Office of Science of the Department of Energy, the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and the Genome Science Program is DE-SC0022207. Various aspects of this research have also been funded by the National Institutes of Health NIH NIGMS R01GM092218, NIGMS R37GM067152, NCI R03CA222-452-01 and NCI 1F32GM128344-01, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the aid agreement, US6083 Research Office and Defense Advanced Research The Planning Bureau is based on the cooperation agreement W911 NF-14-2-0022.
With McLean Lab's status as the Waters Innovation Center, the team has access to the instruments and early technologies that make this work possible.
On December 7, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published an article entitled "Accelerated strain phenotyping analysis of intact microbial colonies using desorption electrospray ionization imaging mass spectrometry and non-targeted analysis".
Co-authors of the paper include Jody C. May, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Brian F. Pfleger, Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The first authors of the paper, Piyoosh Babele and Berkley M. Ellis, were graduate students in the Young and McLean laboratories, respectively.
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