Abstract:
The Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology group focuses our research efforts on the exploration of photosynthetic microbes and their use in biotechnology. Microalgae and cyanobacteria, ‘algae’, are evolutionarily diverse and serve as primary producers in global ecosystems. They use light for energy and inorganic inputs as substrates for growth; carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen (NH₄, NO₃) and phosphorous (PO₄), chemicals generally found in human activity effluents. Algal biomasses are composed of higher value chemical order in the form of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and others like pigments. Their biomass compositions are highly species- and growth stage-specific, with variable abundances of fatty acid chain lengths, amino acids, and polysaccharides. Some algae contain high ratios of oils, others protein or carbohydrates as well as chemicals like squalene and sterols, photosynthesis-supporting carotenoid pigments, and other small molecule metabolites. The potential applications for their biomass and their bioprocesses are numerous, much like those of plants. Species-depending, algae can be used as a food and feed additives, in bioplastics, as sources of oils, in cosmetics, and as a raw substrate for bulk commodity or specialty chemicals. This 'phenomic' landscape and their consumption of inorganic inputs means that algae in biotechnology can be used to sustainably reuse ‘wastes’, converting them into higher chemical order value. Algae can be ‘resource recovery vehicles’ or 'green cell factories'. Algal biotechnology is directly in line with modern goals of sustainable resource use and development of circular bioeconomy concepts and the RDIA pillar Sustainable Environment and Supply of Essential Needs. At KAUST, the SSB group has focused on three interconnected research themes: exploration of the diversity and biotechnological potential of culturable algae from the specialized environments found in Saudi Arabia, expanding algal metabolisms through genetic engineering or ‘synthetic biology’ to create non-native chemical products in select algal species, and development of the bioprocess technologies required to harvest these chemicals from algal cultures. During this colloquium, I will overview the complex history and opportunities in the algal biotechnology space, detail the achievements of our lab since 2019 in the three themes described above, and discuss our future goals to expand these research themes at KAUST moving forward.

Bio:
Dr. Kyle J. Lauersen has been an Assistant Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) since August 2019. His group is called Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology with their research focussed on engineering algae to be green cell factories. Kyle has a Doctorate of Natural Sciences from Bielefeld University in Germany, a master’s and bachelor’s in biology, as well as bachelor’s of education from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.