Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

Sustainable manufacturing with synthetic biology

Nature Biotechnology volume 40, pages 304–307 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Producing commodity chemicals in bacteria that live on industrial air pollution captures more greenhouse gases than it emits.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Synthetic biology promotes a circular carbon economy.

References

  1. Liew, F. E. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/s41587-021-01195-w (2022).

  2. Jullesson, D., David, F., Pfleger, B. & Nielsen, J. Biotechnol. Adv. 33, 1395–1402 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hermann, B. G., Blok, K. & Patel, M. K. Environ. Sci. Technol. 41, 7915–7921 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Yang, M., Baral, N. R., Anastasopoulou, A., Breunig, H. M. & Scown, C. D. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54, 12810–12819 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schuchmann, K. & Müller, V. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 12, 809–821 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Heffernan, J. K. et al. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 8, 204 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoffmeister, S. et al. Metab. Eng. 36, 37–47 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wu, M., Wang, M., Liu, J. & Huo, H. Biotechnol. Prog. 24, 1204–1214 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wernet, G. et al. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 21, 1218–1230 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Marcellin, E. et al. Green Chem. 18, 3020–3028 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Karim, A. S. et al. Nat. Chem. Biol. 16, 912–919 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Takors, R. et al. Microb. Biotechnol. 11, 606–625 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Collis, J., Strunge, T., Steubing, B., Zimmermann, A. & Schomäcker, R. Front. Energy Res. 9, 642162 (2021).

  14. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization: Status and Research Needs https://doi.org/10.17226/25232 (National Academies Press, 2019).

  15. Katsyv, A. & Müller, V. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 8, 621166 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Baral, N. R. et al. ACS Sustain. Chem.& Eng. 7, 9062–9079 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Carbonell, P. et al. Commun. Biol. 1, 66 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. IEA. Chemicals (International Energy Agency, 2021).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Systems & Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Corinne D. Scown & Jay D. Keasling

  2. Life-Cycle, Economics, and Agronomy Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA, USA

    Corinne D. Scown

  3. Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Corinne D. Scown

  4. Energy & Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Corinne D. Scown

  5. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Jay D. Keasling

  6. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark

    Jay D. Keasling

  7. Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Institute for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes for Advanced Technologies, Shenzhen, China

    Jay D. Keasling

  8. Biofuels and Bioproducts Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA, USA

    Jay D. Keasling

Authors
  1. Corinne D. Scown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jay D. Keasling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Corinne D. Scown or Jay D. Keasling.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Scown, C.D., Keasling, J.D. Sustainable manufacturing with synthetic biology. Nat Biotechnol 40, 304–307 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01248-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01248-8

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research