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  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

How synthetic biologists are building better biofactories

Artificial electron donors and acceptors expand researchers’ metabolic engineering options — if only cells would cooperate.
  1. Sara Reardon

    1. Sara Reardon is a freelance journalist based in Bozeman, Montana.

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Technician in a white lab coat bends down to inspect a fermentation reactor

Synthetic small-molecule cofactors could reduce the cost of biomanufacturing. Credit: Alamy

Scientists have used microorganisms to produce beneficial chemicals for decades. By providing the microbes with enzymes and metabolic pathways, researchers can coax cells to churn out everything from food additives to biofuels.

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Nature 628, 224-226 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00907-x

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