Metabolic Engineering (Microbes as Machines)

[[Media:Spring2015_Metabolic_Engineering_Pre-Discussion_Questions.pdf|Download Pre-Discussion Questions (PDF)]]
However, it is not possible to chemically synthesize all natural products in an economical manner, despite advances in synthetic organic chemistry during the past century; for example, the potent antimalarial drug precursor artemisinin cannot be economically produced by chemical synthesis alone Paddon2014.

= Required Reading/Viewing =

// Summary of how economical semi-synthetic production of artemisinin was achieved in engineered yeast // CNN Interview with Jay Keasling that mentions artemisinin and also focuses on biofuels.
 * 1) Paddon2014 pmid=24686413
 * 1) JBEI2013 Turning Sugar into High Performance Fuel: CNN's The Next List Profiles Jay Keasling (Watch on YouTube)

= Assigned Papers =

// Addicting E. coli to caffeine by metabolic engineering // Optimizing the production of different chromophores by altering the violacein pathway // Refactoring a nitrogen fixation gene cluster
 * 1) Quandti2014 pmid=23654268
 * 1) Lee2013 pmid=24038353
 * 1) Temme2012 pmid=22509035