Sustainable Bioproduction of natural dyes in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

Through this PhD, the aim is to improve work on dye biosynthesis in Yarrowia and research other sustainable dyeing solutions in the process. Y. lipolytica's ability to break down a wide range of waste products would be assessed to determine the best substrate for pigment biosynthesis. Simultaneously, genomic targets which impact colourant production would be identified by harnessing computational modelling tools;dye titres would be maximised by overexpressing or silencing identified genes, boosting carbonflux towards the blue dye.Once the pigment synthesising process is optimised, I would concentrate my efforts to implement relevant upstream and downstream processing techniques in a modular, systematic manner. For what concerns upstream processing, a separate bioprocess involving decomposing fungi would be devised with the aim to provide valuable feedstock for the pigment synthesising organismand to boost the overall circularity of the process. Consequently, a dye extraction pipeline would be established to maximise biomass utilisation and improve yields. To that end, transporter proteins mediating dye secretion would be tested as an easy processing route to release dye molecules outside of the cell membrane, thus simplifying the extraction protocol. Due to the high modularity of the procedure I plan to study, computational tools such as genome mining and machine learning algorithms would be harnessed to identify other natural dyes that could be produced with the newly developed circular framework. For these reasons, I relish the opportunity to gain experience in the Synthetic Biologyspace as a PhD student and to actively drive the field forward.