The application of the National Key Research and Development Program submitted by Prof. Yandu Lu in SCBE has been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China. The total investment is 19.94 million. The project aims to support Microalgal Synthetic Biology for sustainable world.
Domesticated microalgae hold great promise for the sustainable provision of various bioresources for human domestic and industrial consumption. Efforts to exploit their potential are far from being fully realized due to limitations in the know-how of microalgal engineering. In this project, scientists from Henan University, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, Ocean University of China, Hainan University would study on how to develop microalga-based production of valuable products using metabolic engineering, genome editing, and synthetic biology. Downstream industrialization has also been included in this project to fill the gaps between laboratory R&D and tangible industrial production by engineering microalgae with crucial and economically relevant pathways of value-added compounds.