ChE Seminar Series with Ian Wheeldon, Ph.D.

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Title: “Data-Driven Microbial Strain Engineering”
Ian Wheeldon, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
University of California, Riverside

The United States bioeconomy, with yearly revenues upward of $400 billion, represents >2% of the national GDP. A large portion of this industry is the at-scale production of chemicals and reagents for the healthcare, food, feed and chemical industries. Many of the successes in this vital economic sector leverage naturally occurring microbial traits to create bioprocesses. A classic example of this is the yeast S. cerevisiae which is exploited for its ability to produce ethanol at high rates and titers. Other examples include the bacterial production of amino acids, copper bioleaching, and the production of enzymes in fungi. Creating new and improved microbial strains for these and other processes is time-consuming and costly – new approaches are needed to accelerate development. https://www.che.ufl.edu/events/che-seminar-series-dr-ian-wheeldon/