Benjamin Woolston

Research Overview

Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for sustainable biochemical production and human health.

Renewable Biochemical Production with Acetogenic Microbes

Biological production of chemicals and fuels can offer many environmental benefits, from pollution prevention to greenhouse gas capture and sequestration. Acetogenic microbes are a diverse group of ancient anaerobic bacteria that metabolize single carbon substrates such as carbon monoxide, methanol, and formic acid. These substrates have recently emerged as attractive feedstocks for bioprocessing because they do not compete with food supply, and can be produced directly from carbon dioxide using renewable energy. Using tools from metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and protein biochemistry, we are investigating fundamental questions about the metabolism of acetogens, as well as engineering them to produce valuable biofuels and biochemicals using single carbon substrates.

Interrogating Microbial Metabolism in Human Gut Microbiota with Engineered Microbes

In recent years, the gut microbiota has emerged as an important factor in human health, and interactions between host and microbial cells mediated by small-molecule microbial metabolites play a role in regulating the immune system, gastrointestinal diseases and certain cancers, and a communication network between the brain and gut (gut-brain-axis) that affects neurodegeneration and mood. Studying the role of these metabolites in disease is complicated by the lack of robust methods to determine and modulate their local concentration in the gut. We are tackling this problem using synthetic biology methods to engineer commensal bacteria to sense and precisely modulate specific metabolites in vivo. Applications of these engineered microbes may give insight into disease pathways, impact of specific metabolites on the gut ecosystem, and a better mechanistic understanding of bacteria-host interactions.