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Call for papers - Synthetic and systems biology approaches applied to microbial engineering

Guest Editors

Mingfeng Cao, PhD, Xiamen University, China
Sang Jun Lee, PhD, Chung-Ang University, South Korea

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 29 November 2024
 

BMC Microbiology launches the Collection, Synthetic and systems biology approaches applied to microbial engineering. We invite researchers to contribute with submissions focusing on leveraging synthetic and systems biology approaches to study, design, and manipulate biological functions and metabolism in the context of microbial engineering.


New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure

Meet the Guest Editors

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Mingfeng Cao, PhD, Xiamen University, China

Dr Cao holds the prestigious Minjiang Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Xiamen Laboratory (China). Additionally, he serves as the Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and holds an honorary research fellowship at the Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory. He earned his PhD from Nankai University in 2011 and gained valuable experience as a research associate at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral studies at Iowa State University and later served as a research scientist at the University of Illinois (USA). Dr Cao's research is dedicated to advancing synthetic biology and metabolic engineering techniques to create microbial cell factories for the production of high-value chemicals. His contributions are evident through his extensive publication record, comprising over 60 journal articles, and his involvement in more than 10 patent filings.

Sang Jun Lee, PhD, Chung-Ang University, South Korea

Dr Lee's recent research centers on advancing CRISPR-Cas-based molecular tools and delving into systems and synthetic biology. Before joining Chung-Ang University, he served as the Chief of the Microbiomics and Immunity Research Center at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). Dr Lee earned his PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST and then dedicated six years as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland (USA). He has authored over 80 research papers in esteemed microbiology journals and holds membership on the editorial boards of several journals within the field. Since 2024, he has held the position of Director of the Institute of Microbiomics at Chung-Ang University.

About the Collection

Microorganisms represent ideal candidates for synthetic and systems biology research because they can be manipulated with relative ease and they play essential roles in the environment, energy production and human health. The application and integration of both approaches had a strong impact on the field of microbial engineering, offering innovative strategies to study biological functions, as well as to design and optimize microbial cell factories. By combining the design of synthetic biological systems with the application of engineering principles, such as mathematical modelling and whole-system analysis, both systems and synthetic biology have been crucial to develop microbial platforms for the sustainable production of pharmaceuticals, biofuels or biomaterials, and other environmental applications (e.g. bioremediation processes). Important advances have been made for instance in the implementation of synthetic gene circuits for precise control of cellular processes and communication, the development of high-throughput screening technologies, or the integration of omics and computational modelling tools to engineer and model complex microbial traits. Moreover, being able to construct and program ‘synthetic microbial consortia’ can expand the range of biological functions performed by a microbial community, as well as their biotechnological applications.

Future research in this field holds the promise of further accelerating the development of microbial cell factories with enhanced productivity and versatility in the context of bioprocess scale-up, with potential to mitigate climate change challenges such as achieving sustainable energy security. In support of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9, SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), BMC Microbiology launches the Collection, Synthetic and systems biology approaches applied to microbial engineering. We invite researchers to contribute with submissions focusing on leveraging synthetic and systems biology approaches to study, design and manipulate biological functions and metabolism in the context of microbial engineering. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Designing and bioengineering of microbial cell factories for control of cellular functions and metabolism
  • Microbial cell factories for the production of recombinant proteins, pharmaceuticals, biofuels and biomaterials, and environmental applications (e.g. bioremediation processes)
  • Optimization of microbial metabolism for the production of biopolymers, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and biofuels, and the biosynthesis of metabolites
  • Understanding of molecular and cellular circuits, and design of synthetic circuits that can provide novel cellular functions and metabolic pathways
  • Optimizing metabolic pathways and biological circuits to control cellular processes and behavior
  • Synthetic gene circuits for the control of cellular processes, behavior and communication
  • Designing and engineering microbiomes to enhance or build novel functions
  • Design and development of new tools to construct and engineer synthetic microbial consortia and program their functions and behavior
  • Design and development of novel synthetic biology tools
  • High-throughput screening technologies for microbial strain selection and improvement
  • Application and integration of omics data and mathematical modeling for microbial engineering
  • Development of microbial control systems for improved bioprocessing
  • Microbial protein engineering for control of protein expression levels and bioproduction


Image credit: Parilov / stock.adobe.com

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Synthetic and systems biology approaches applied to microbial engineering" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.