Ray Westenberg

BioE Ph.D. Proposal Presentation

9 AM on Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Location: Ford Environmental Sciences and Technology, L1175

https://gatech.zoom.us/j/94896181593?pwd=hQDsuuVTRp06olQ2Rc4oQMBM2EF3JO.1

Advisor: Pamela Peralta-Yahya, Ph.D. (Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Committee:

Joel Kostka, Ph.D. (Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology) 

Julia Kubanek, Ph.D. (Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology) 

Lily Cheung, Ph.D. (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology) 

Mark Styczynski, Ph.D. (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Engineering carbon negative metabolism with applications for chemical bioproduction on Mars

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are a major contributor to the harmful impacts of climate change, with the biological conversion of C1 compounds as an emerging strategy to address this.  Utilizing CO2 as a sustainable carbon source avoids diverting sugar feedstocks away from food production and could enable manufacturing in resource-limited environments such as arid regions that rely on imported materials and on the surface of Mars to support space exploration. However, the implementation of carbon-efficient bioproduction can be difficult to achieve on industrially relevant timescales and in a cost-competitive manner, therefore is considered to be one of the grand challenges in metabolic engineering. This proposal seeks to develop new tools in achieving carbon negative metabolism to address this problem. Aim 1 focuses on improving cell-free chemical synthesis from C1 compounds using a thermophilic biocatalyst to eliminate metabolic competition and improve product yields. Aim 2 involves prototyping carbon-conserving networks to prevent carbon loss through the central metabolism in the microbial synthesis of chemicals. Lastly, Aim 3 explores a notable application in carbon negative biomanufacturing by engineering cyanobacteria for chemical production as a means to support the exploration of space. Taken together, these efforts will have broad significance for enhancing carbon negative synthesis pathways and help to enable a practical solution for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) on Mars.