In synthetic biology we often use a single type of microbe to do a specific task for us, but in real world settings this would rarely occur. Microbes often live in diverse communities, and we are investigating how these microbes cooperate in real world settings. We can then use that information to either re-engineer those microbial communities, or develop new synthetic microbial communities based on those principles.
Currently all commercial synthetic biology processes use a single designer organism to produce the desired product, so we are building a synthetic biology toolkit that enables diverse microbes to cooperate, communicate, sense and feed each other. Our novel designer microbial communities will work as a team but with each microbe optimised for a specific task, which will improve commercial production for synthetic biology.
Project examples
Mapping the path from drink to textiles
The fermented drink kombucha could well become the foundation of new eco-friendly textiles, according to a research team exploring this possibility.
Read MoreHighs And Lows Of Creating World-first Chromosomes
A decade-long quest to create chromosomes for the world’s first entirely synthetic yeast is nearly complete for Macquarie University researchers.
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