Heterologous biosynthesis as a route to complex polyketide and isoprenoid natural products

This presentation will detail recent work to produce therapeutic and chemically complex natural products using Escherichia coli as a heterologous host. Broadly, our laboratory strives to establish and optimize natural product formation using heterologous host systems. The motivation for doing so is two-fold. First, there is the desire to continually access the tremendous medicinal value associated with natural products. Second, challenges in over-producing and/or manipulating biosynthesis through native hosts have spurred the emergence of heterologous biosynthesis as a means to exert control over the processes responsible for natural product formation. In this presentation, specifics will be provided regarding the logic and success in producing the polyketide antibiotic erythromycin A, erythromycin analogs, and early-stage intermediates of the isoprenoid anticancer agent paclitaxel. The presentation will also feature multi-scale engineering strategies our group has used in an effort to enable, maximize, and alter heterologous production.