Invited Talk: New Wine from Old Barrels: Repurposing Biology through Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology for purpose. One of the most common techniques in synthetic biology is the repurposing of tools and processes in Nature for a purposeful function. This normally involves the re-wiring of metabolic processes, channelling energy across systems for the purposeful production of therapeutics, nutraceuticals and ingredients, and more recently, in environmental sustainability. In the first part of the presentation, the biosynthesis of polyketides will be discussed. Polyketides are a large class of biomolecules that are naturally produced by bacteria, fungi and plants, and include many clinically important biomolecules with anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. They are biosynthesized from acyl-CoA precursors by polyketide synthases (PKSs), and due to their chemical complexity, are not easily synthesized and structurally manipulated by chemical means. In the second part of the presentation, efforts made in achieving environmental sustainability, allowing our society to progress without effecting environmental pollution and resource depletion, will be illustrated. Electronic waste represents a significant and growing portion of waste in our cities, and thus there is a pressing need to develop sustainable technologies to recycle electronic waste in order to protect our environment and preserve natural resources. Current recycling methods have proved to be environmentally and economically unsustainable; these treatment technologies for electronic waste use strong acids or cyanide that are pollutive in nature. Synthetic biology provides sustainable solutions to address challenges that confront society. Using Nature as inspiration, our synthetic biology-empowered approach will contribute towards Singapore’s efforts to transition to a green economy, furthering her efforts to become an environmentally sustainable city