CyanoFactory, a European consortium to develop technologies needed to advance cyanobacteria as chassis for production of chemicals and fuels

TLDR

CyanoFactory was an FP7 R&D project launched to advance solar biofuel production by developing novel synthetic cyanobacterial cell factories that convert solar energy into fuel. The project aimed to design and construct custom cyanobacterial cells for high‑impact chemical and fuel production using synthetic biology, moving beyond conventional methods. CyanoFactory built a synthetic biology toolbox, bioinformatics platform, improved chassis and photosynthetic efficiency, biosafety features, metabolic models, and both laboratory‑scale and 1350‑L outdoor photobioreactors, through collaboration of ten leading European partners.

Abstract

CyanoFactory, Design, construction and demonstration of solar biofuel production using novel (photo)synthetic cell factories, was an R&D project developed in response to the European Commission FP7-ENERGY-2012-1 call "Future Emerging Technologies" and the need for significant advances in both new science and technologies to convert solar energy into a fuel. CyanoFactory was an example of "purpose driven" research and development with identified scientific goals and creation of new technologies. The present overview highlights significant outcomes of the project, three years after its successful completion. The scientific progress of CyanoFactory involved: (i) development of a ToolBox for cyanobacterial synthetic biology; (ii) construction of DataWarehouse/Bioinformatics web-based capacities and functions; (iii) improvement of chassis growth, functionality and robustness; (iv) introduction of custom designed genetic constructs into cyanobacteria, (v) improvement of photosynthetic efficiency towards hydrogen production; (vi) biosafety mechanisms; (vii) analyses of the designed cyanobacterial cells to identify bottlenecks with suggestions on further improvements; (viii) metabolic modelling of engineered cells; (ix) development of an efficient laboratory scale photobioreactor unit; and (x) the assembly and experimental performance assessment of a larger (1350 L) outdoor flat panel photobioreactor system during two seasons. CyanoFactory - Custom design and purpose construction of microbial cells for the production of desired products using synthetic biology – aimed to go beyond conventional paths to pursue innovative and high impact goals. CyanoFactory brought together ten leading European partners (universities, research organizations and enterprises) with a common goal – to develop the future technologies in Synthetic biology and Advanced photobioreactors.