Hot off the press in Nature Chemical Biology: Chain lenght engineering with mammalian fatty acid synthase
From laundry detergents 🧺 to cosmetics 💄 and food 🍫, fatty acids are hidden in countless everyday products. Their conventional production from palm and coconut oil fuels deforestation 🌳 and biodiversity loss 🐾.
We have now reprogrammed the central metabolic enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS) to offer a sustainable alternative. With just two precise molecular changes, FAS can be switched from producing its standard 16-carbon product to generating shorter fatty acids on demand. In collaboration with Yongjin Zhou and coworkers from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CAS), the engineered FAS was transferred into yeast, enabling the sustainable production of industrially relevant fatty acids in bioreactors.
See link: https://rdcu.be/eXX8F
This was great work of Damian and Chris and many more from the Grininger lab over the past years!