Molecular Biology Commons^™

Improving Biomanufacturing Production With Novel Elp-Based Transcriptional Regulators, Juya Jeon, Logan R. Readnour, Kevin V. Solomon

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microbes can be used to produce valuable drugs, chemicals, and biofuels, but their potential has not been fully realized due to low production yields. To improve biomanufacturing processes and yield, we are developing novel, transcriptional regulators using biosynthesis technology in order to improve cellular health and overall production. Our regulator contains elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which make ideal sensors since they exhibit a sharp, inverse phase transition to indicators of cell health such as intracellular pH and ionic strength, and external stimuli such as temperature. We hypothesize that ELP can be fused to transcription factors to control expression of target genes. …