A synthetic biology and green chemistry approach to the breakdown of chemical warfare agents

分解化学战剂的合成生物学和绿色化学方法

• 批准号: 2607179
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2607179
• 关键词: synthetic; biology; green; chemistry; approach

The field of synthetic biology has emerged as an elegant approach to diminishing our society's reliance on fossil fuels. However, in addition to utilising new sustainable materials to fuel biological processes, engineered bacteria can also be used to remediate chemical waste generated from existing industrial activities. This circular economy approach uses waste as a feedstock, rather than an end-product, for the modern bio-economy.Chemical warfare agents are a particularly challenging category of 'waste' as they are highly toxic, non-natural and man-made; Nature has not evolved mechanisms to utilise them to support cellular function. To overcome these limitations, this multidisciplinary project will combine evolution techniques with biocompatible chemistry to create new pathways in bacteria to utilise sulfur- and phosphorus-containing chemicals as a feedstock, breaking them down to non-hazardous products. It will also screen >200 newly-isolated microorganisms from extreme habitats around the world, such as deep-sea vents and acid lakes, for new enzymes to be used as new tools in synthetic biology.

合成生物学领域已成为减少社会对化石燃料依赖的一种优雅方法。然而，除了利用新的可持续材料为生物过程提供燃料外，工程细菌还可以用于修复现有工业活动产生的化学废物。这种循环经济方法使用废物作为现代生物经济的原料，而不是最终产品。化学战剂是一种特别具有挑战性的“废物”类别，因为它们具有剧毒、非天然和人造；大自然尚未进化出利用它们来支持细胞功能的机制。为了克服这些限制，这个多学科项目将把进化技术与生物相容性化学结合起来，在细菌中创造新的途径，利用含硫和含磷的化学物质作为原料，将它们分解成无害产品。它还将从世界各地的极端栖息地（例如深海喷口和酸性湖）中筛选超过 200 种新分离的微生物，以寻找可用作合成生物学新工具的新酶。