Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
Microb Cell Fact. 2018 Aug 30;17(1):135. doi: 10.1186/s12934-018-0979-7.
Biotechnological processes use microbes to convert abundant molecules, such as glucose, into high-value products, such as pharmaceuticals, commodity and fine chemicals, and energy. However, from the outset of the development of a new bioprocess, it is difficult to determine the feasibility, expected yields, and targets for engineering. In this review, we describe a methodology that uses rough estimates to assess the feasibility of a process, approximate the expected product titer of a biological system, and identify variables to manipulate in order to achieve the desired performance. This methodology uses estimates from literature and biological intuition, and can be applied in the early stages of a project to help plan future engineering. We highlight recent literature examples, as well as two case studies from our own work, to demonstrate the use and power of rough estimates. Describing and predicting biological function using estimates guides the research and development phase of new bioprocesses and is a useful first step to understand and build a new microbial factory.
生物技术过程利用微生物将丰富的分子（如葡萄糖）转化为高价值产品，如药物、大宗商品和精细化学品以及能源。然而，从开发新的生物工艺的一开始，就很难确定其可行性、预期产量和工程目标。在这篇综述中，我们描述了一种使用粗略估计来评估过程可行性、近似生物系统预期产物滴度以及确定要操纵的变量以达到预期性能的方法。该方法使用文献和生物学直觉的估计值，可以在项目的早期阶段应用，以帮助规划未来的工程。我们强调了最近的文献实例，以及我们自己工作中的两个案例研究，以展示粗略估计的使用和效果。使用估计值来描述和预测生物功能指导新生物工艺的研究和开发阶段，是理解和构建新微生物工厂的有用的第一步。
