Synthetic Biology for Sustainable Abundance: Biomining, Electromicrobial Production, and Hyper-Engineerable Microbes

Abstract

Over the next few decades, there is a compelling need to build a new sustainable energy infrastructure to replace the fossil fuel system that we have relied on since the 1700s. This infrastructure must not only replace what exists but far exceed its capabilities, delivering more power to more people to meet growing demands from both developing and advanced economies. But how do we increase energy use without harming the Earth? Biology drives the Earth’s geochemical cycles, operating with far greater elemental and energy fluxes than all of human civilization. This suggests that synthetic biology could solve at least some of our environmental problems while providing access to much greater energy. However, leveraging biology remains a formidable challenge, in part because we do not yet understand nearly enough about the basic science underlying the biological systems that bring the most unusual and useful capabilities to sustainability and energy. This challenge is not unique to biology and sustainability—groundbreaking technologies of the past have required not only curiosity-driven basic research but also use-inspired basic research. Over the past decade, our lab has discovered new basic science needed to build synthetic biology technologies and established itself as a leader in sustainability and synthetic biology. This article summarizes breakthroughs from my lab over the past decade in three key areas: biomining, electrically-driven metabolism, and hyper-engineerable microbes.