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UID:https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/events/from-waste-to-products-metabolic-engineering-for-circular-biomanufacturing
URL:https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/events/from-waste-to-products-metabolic-engineering-for-circular-biomanufacturing
DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260914T130000
DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260914T140000
SUMMARY:Microbiology seminar: Dr Ross Eaglesfield, Department of Biochemistry
DESCRIPTION:From waste to products: Metabolic engineering for circular biomanufacturingMicrobes have evolved remarkable metabolic versatility, allowing them to use a vast range of compounds as sources of carbon and energy, and even to degrade human-derived pollutants such as pesticides and plastics. Beyond catabolism, microbes possess diverse biosynthetic pathways capable of producing valuable chemicals and materials. Together, these capabilities create the possibility of using microorganisms as microscopic factories to sustainably produce many of the products required by modern society without relying on finite fossil feedstocks. Realising this potential requires us to move beyond the simple, highly refined feedstocks typically used in industrial biotechnology. Waste-derived feedstocks are chemically complex, variable and often inhibitory to microbial growth, and rarely align neatly with what microbial metabolism can process on its own. Overcoming this mismatch can require tandem chemical and biological approaches, pairing chemical pre-treatment or conversion with tailored microbial catabolism. We also need a deeper understanding of the underlying metabolic processes at play as well as new strategies for engineering metabolic robustness on these difficult feedstocks. This talk will explore how microbial metabolism can be understood and redesigned to enable waste-based biomanufacturing. Previous work on the upcycling of mixed-plastic textile waste into a value-added nylon precursor and the conversion of high-density polyethylene-derived carbon into a ‘beachhead’ chemical monomer will illustrate how chemical pre-processing and microbial metabolism can be combined to valorise recalcitrant wastes like plastics. These ideas now form the basis of the research programme being developed in my laboratory at the University of Otago, where adaptive laboratory evolution, systems-level approaches and metabolic engineering are being used to understand how bacteria adapt to challenging carbon sources and to develop robust microbial production strains capable of converting complex waste-derived feedstocks into valuable products. 
LOCATION:Biochemistry Seminar Room G.13 (BIG13), 710 Cumberland Street, Dunedin
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