Chromosome Engineering for Bioproducts from Methanotrophs – Year Two

Currently Metagenom Bio Inc. offers contract research services in environmental microbial species profiling. Applications for this service include the monitoring of biogas operations, greenhouses, and mining processes. Metagenom Bio wishes to offer solutions that use microbes to generate value-added products. Biogas reactors can break down waste products and produce methane, or natural gas. This methane can be burned, or some of it may be used to create materials using bacteria that can consume methane. These bacteria are the methanotrophs, and some of them are able to make polymers that can be used as bioplastics. These bioplastics are biodegradable, biocompatible, and they are suited for use in medical applications and food packaging applications among others. We plan to use genome engineering methods to engineer methanotrophs so that we can use them to create a range of bioplastics for various industrial applications requiring desired physical properties.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Doxey

Student:

John Heil

Partner:

Metagenom Bio Inc.

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Waterloo