Engineering PapersSearch

Engineering topics

Backman, Tyler

Publications and source records attributed to Backman, Tyler.

RetroTide v1.0

RetroTide is a retrobiosynthesis software tool, designed to guide the design of biological pathways to make valuable small molecules. It takes as input a desired small molecule chemical structure, and outputs a design for a polyketide synthase enzyme (PKS) that has the closest possible chemical structure, as accessible by PKS chemistry. It is developed as a Python software library, and internally performs a search of the PKS design space, while simulating the chemicals produced by each design.

Backman, Tyler

Accelerating polyketide synthase engineering for high TRY production of biofuels and bioproducts (Final Technical Report)

Polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes have a modular, deterministic logic that holds the potential to act as a flexible chemical factory for the biological production of a huge diversity of valuable small molecule compounds. However, engineering a custom PKS to produce a specific desired product currently requires years of trial and error, for reasons that remain poorly understood. In this project, we have developed a rapid, high throughput, Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle for polyketide synthases (PKSs) and demonstrate its utility for production of materials precursors. The objectives are 1) to develop a rapid, high-throughput (HT) DBTL cycle for PKSs that will enable production of a large number of unnatural, organic molecules on demand at high titer, rate, and yield (TRY); 2) to demonstrate the utility of the PKS DBTL cycle to produce three molecules: one commodity chemical (caprolactam or valerolactam) and two novel materials precursors (caprolactam or valerolactam derivatives); and 3) to demonstrate the utility of the PKS DBTL cycle to increase the TRY of one molecule (caprolactam or valerolactam). In this project, we have successfully demonstrated our high throughput PKS DBTL pipeline, and have biologically produced valerolactam and several other novel nylon monomers.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES