Synthetic and applied microbiology

Synthetic microbiology aims at constructing microbes with new-to-nature functions to provide sustainable solutions for societal challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity and disease. This demands engineering of microbial systems on all levels of the central dogma with predictable outcome.

This course covers state-of-the-art approaches and technology for the engineering of synthetic microbial systems. It will cover the following topics:

- highly-parallelized gene synthesis

- whole-genome assembly and re-coding

- next-generation sequencing

- mutagenesis tools

- engineering and directed evolution of gene regulation, proteins/enzymes, genetic cuircuits and metabolic pathways

- high throughput screening technology

- data-driven modelling for prediction and design (AI)