New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology

Microbial Cell Factories

Commentary

Guo-Qiang Chen¹ 

[1] MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China;Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China;

关键词: Industrial biotechnology;    Shale gas;    Oil fields;    PHB;    Bioplastics;    Biofuels;    Bulk chemicals;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2859-11-111

 received in 2012-08-13, accepted in 2012-08-14,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Industrial biotechnology has not developed as fast as expected due to some challenges including the emergences of alternative energy sources, especially shale gas, natural gas hydrate (or gas hydrate) and sand oil et al. The weaknesses of microbial or enzymatic processes compared with the chemical processing also make industrial biotech products less competitive with the chemical ones. However, many opportunities are still there if industrial biotech processes can be as similar as the chemical ones. Taking advantages of the molecular biology and synthetic biology methods as well as changing process patterns, we can develop bioprocesses as competitive as chemical ones, these including the minimized cells, open and continuous fermentation processes et al.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Chen; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012