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Description:

ChBE's third seminar of the Spring Quarter will be presented by three ChBE graduate students, detailed information is given below:

Date & Time: Thursday, April 14th 8:30 am – 10:00 am
Location: Ford ITW Room (refreshments will be available at 8:25am)


Speaker: Yuan Yao, PhD candidate in the Masanet Lab
Title: Prospective Life-cycle Technology Assessment Modeling Framework for Sustainable Chemical Production

Abstract
Assessing the energy, environmental, and economic impacts of emerging technologies is critical for promoting sustainable chemical production because it provides policy makers with good references on future investment and technology selection, it also provides manufacturers and researchers with great understandings of technology potential, possible bottlenecks, and future RD&D directions. However, the assessment of new technologies is challenging for the lack of process data, general evaluation approaches across different products, and robust methodologies over the large temporal and spatial scales. This talk will present a novel technology assessment modeling framework that systematically integrates engineering, economic, and environmental life-cycle analysis approaches. Applications of this modeling framework will be discussed to demonstrate the functionality. Examples of how this modeling framework quantifies the net energy, emissions, and economic implications of pathway/technology changes for U.S. chemicals production systems and evaluates their effects across the economy from a life cycle perspective will be presented.

Speaker: Jennifer Kay, PhD Candidate in the Jewett Lab
Title: Conversion of glucose to 2,3-butanediol in Escherichia coli cell-free lysates: a model system

Abstract
In recent decades we are seeing more and more examples of whole pathways being activated in crude lysates to generate a desired product in vitro. For instance, inexpensive substrates glucose or maltose have been used to regenerate ATP to power cell-free protein synthesis. Buffers and reaction conditions designed to mimic the cytoplasm have allowed a remarkable number of enzymes to be coordinately activated and to remain stable for up to about a week. It begs the question, of whether cytoplasmic mimicry will benefit other endeavors such as rapid enzyme screening or in vitro multi-enzyme catalysis.

Here, as a model study, we sought to determine if the conversion of glucose to 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD), a medium level commodity chemical with many industrial applications, could be achieved in an in vitro system designed to have high cofactor regeneration. Extracts of Escherichia coli expressing three heterologous enzymes are able to convert glucose to m2,3-BD at surprisingly high rates and concentrations. With no strain optimization, we have observed a maximal synthesis rate of m2,3-BD of 11.3 ± 0.1 g/L/h with a theoretical yield of 71% (0.36 g m2,3-BD / g glucose) and concentrations of 82 ± 8 g/L m2,3-BD in batch reactions. We have found the system to be robust to working concentrations of antibiotics and antifoam, and other compounds that are toxic to cell growth but do not denature or inhibit relevant enzymes. Current work includes tuning enzyme ratios to try to understand what is necessary and limiting in the system, and testing potential enzyme screening protocols. These results highlight the ability for high-level co-factor regeneration in cell-free lysates and suggest exciting opportunities to use lysate-based systems to rapidly prototype metabolic pathways and carry out molecular transformations when bioconversion yields (g product/L), productivities (g product/L/h), or cellular toxicity limit commercial feasibility of whole-cell fermentation.

Speaker: Jennifer Schoborg, PhD candidate in the Jewett Lab
Title: Rapid production of membrane-bound oligosaccharyltransferases with the aid of cell-free protein synthesis

Abstract
Protein glycosylation is the addition of sugars, called glycans, to proteins. This process is critical for pharmaceutical protein stability, activity, and immunogenicity, yet our understanding of the functional and structural consequences of site-specific glycosylation has remained limited. In order to learn more about this process, the key enzymes must be synthesized and characterized. Oligosaccharyltransferases (OSTs), which facilitate the attachment of glycans to protein targets, have historically been difficult enzymes to produce, due to their large size (80-100 kDa) and multiple transmembrane passes (approximately 12). These qualities make OSTs toxic to produce in large quantities in cells, but perfect candidates for cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). Here, I show that CFPS allows for a novel production pipeline for rapid synthesis of a variety of active OSTs, without the need for complex cellular growth schemes. Through optimization of the CFPS reaction, we have been able to produce up to 860 mg/l of six bacterial OSTs and two eukaryotic OSTs. Additionally, four of the bacterial OSTs show activity in in vitro glycosylation reactions. We anticipate this broadly applicable production method will contribute to improved capabilities for controllable glycosylation. It will also provide new avenues to improve our knowledge of glycobiology, making possible a new era of applications in glycoprotein therapeutics and glycoconjugate vaccines.

Description:

ChBE's fourth seminar of the Spring Quarter will be presented by Dr. Yinlun Huang, detailed information is given below:

Date & Time: Thursday, April 21st 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Location: Ford ITW Room (refreshments will be available at 8:45am)


Speaker: Yinlun Huang, Wayne State University 
Title: Multiscale Sustainability: Basic Theory and Applied Studies

Abstract
The quest for engineering sustainability reflects a crucial paradigm shift in the 21st century, i.e., from the traditional techno-economic paradigm to triple-bottom-lines-based sustainable system design, manufacturing, and management at various length-time scales. However, sustainability is an extremely complex area of research and practice in terms of scope, spatial/temporal aspects, and goals; sustainability science is far from exact today. Engineering sustainability needs not only evaluation of the status quo of systems, but also prediction and strategic decision-making for the future under information uncertainty and knowledge insufficiency. Obviously, how to characterize, analyze, design, and restructure systems from the material-product-process level to the large-scale industrial system level, in the context of sustainability, is a very challenging area of research that needs much exploration. 

In this presentation, the challenges and opportunities in engineering sustainability research will be discussed first. Then, the concept and fundamentals of multiscale sustainability will be introduced, and a Multiscale Design for Sustainability methodology will be described, which is developed by resorting to basic sustainability science, multiscale complex systems theory, uncertainty theory, and control theory. The methodology can be used to perform hierarchical system modeling, comprehensive sustainability analysis, and multiscale decision making under uncertainty. The methodological efficacy will be demonstrated through a few case studies, ranging from sustainable design of nanomaterials, sustainable manufacturing of automotive coatings, and to industrial-zone-based technology network sustainability. Finally, an NSF-funded academic-industrial collaboration network involving seven countries on sustainable manufacturing research, education, and technology development will be highlighted and the urgent research needs identified at a recent NSF workshop on sustainable advanced manufacturing will be discussed.

Bio
Dr. Yinlun Huang is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University, where he directs the Laboratory for Multiscale Complex Systems Science and Engineering. His research has been mainly focused on the fundamental study of multiscale complex systems science and sustainability science, with applied study on engineering sustainability, including sustainable nanomaterial development, integrated design of sustainable product and process systems, and manufacturing sustainability. He has published widely in these areas. Dr. Huang is currently directing the NSF funded Sustainable Manufacturing Advances in Research and Technology Coordination Network (SMART CN), which involves 14 domestic universities, seven foreign universities in six countries, and 11 national organizations and university centers. Among many honors, Dr. Huang was a recipient of the Michigan Green Chemistry Governor’s Award in 2009, the AIChE Research Excellence in Sustainable Engineering Award in 2010, and the NASF Scientific Achievement Award in 2013. He is an elected AIChE Fellow. Dr. Huang holds a B.S. degree from Zhejiang University, China, and a M.S. and a Ph.D. degree from Kansas State University, all in chemical engineering. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin before joining Wayne State University in 1993. 

Description:

ChBE's fifth seminar of the Spring Quarter will be presented by Ramon Gonzalez, detailed information is given below:

Date & Time: Thursday, April 28th 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Location: Ford ITW Room (refreshments will be available at 8:45am)

Speaker: Ramon Gonzalez, Rice University
Title: Engineering Biology for the Synthesis of Small Organic Molecules

Abstract
Biological systems are capable of performing many useful functions with applications in fuel, chemical, and pharmaceutical production. However, their full potential remains unrealized due to limitations in our ability to engineer and control them. Our research seeks to fill in these gaps by designing and implementing novel (metabolic) engineering strategies to optimize the performance of biological systems. In this talk, I will highlight our recent progress in these areas with emphasis on the utilization of non-sugar feedstocks for fuel & chemical production and the engineering of orthogonal metabolic pathways for the efficient synthesis of functionalized small molecules.

Bio
Dr. Ramon Gonzalez is a Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University. He leads the laboratory for Metabolic Engineering and Biomanufacturing with the goal of engineering biological platforms for the synthesis of organic molecules with applications in fuel, chemical, and pharmaceutical production. Dr. Gonzalez is also the Founding Director of Rice’s Industrial Biomanufacturing (iBIO) Initiative.

Dr. Gonzalez received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Chile, a M.S. in Biochemical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (Chile), and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Central University of Las Villas (Cuba).

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