Sustainable Energy Seminar Series

Name: Sustainable Energy Seminar Series
Start: 2022-03-21T15:30:00
End: 2022-03-21T15:30:00
Location: Wisconsin Energy Institute

Mar 21, 2022 3:30 PM

RSVP

Wisconsin Energy Institute 1552 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53726

March 17, 2022

4:59 PM

media release: With the easing of COVID restrictions on campus and Dane County, members of the public are now welcome to attend our seminars in person at the Wisconsin Energy Institute. The online/livestream option is still available for anyone who wishes to do so, and masks will be available to anyone who wishes to use one in-person.

Our next Sustainable Energy Seminar will take place on Monday, March 21.

For those attending online, registration is required via Zoom at this link: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/webinar/register/9416425449431/WN_gcu3DrufTR2a2zDt9rP16w

Monday, March 21, 3:30-4:30pm, 1115 Wisconsin Energy Institute and Online

Metabolic engineering: Enhancing microbial systems for the production of bio-chemicals

Victor Ujor, Assistant Professor, Food Science

Abstract: The mounting impacts of climate change and unrelenting increase in human population have triggered widespread interest in alternative sources of fuels, as well as bulk and specialty chemicals. Specifically, microbial systems as cell factories for producing fuels and chemicals have gained significant attention. Further, the emergence of a vast array of tools for engineering microbial systems has contributed to interests in microbe-driven production of bio-chemicals. These tools allow for the elimination of bottlenecks that hamper target product accumulation (during fermentation) and recovery (post-fermentation). These include a) circumventing feedstock-mediated inhibition of target product biosynthesis, b) elimination of undesirable co-products that siphon carbon and electrons away from target product biosynthesis, c) abolition of nuisance products that complicate downstream processing, and d) enhancing feedstock utilization and ultimately, target product biosynthesis. This seminar will discuss the tools for engineering microorganisms towards enhanced production of bio-chemicals, case studies on metabolic engineering of microbial systems to overcome a specific metabolic and process challenges, as well as the future prospects of metabolic engineering and lingering challenges in the field.