Lecture
LED3 Lecture: Production of supply-limited natural product therapeutics using engineered yeast
- Date
- Thursday 12 June 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- CM.1.26
We are excited to announce that Professor Jay Keasling will give the next LED3 lecture on June 12th. Jay is considered one of the foremost authorities in synthetic biology, especially in the field of metabolic engineering. He is the Philomathia Professor of Alternative Energy at the University of California, Berkeley in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Jay is also a founder of Amyris, LS9 (now part of REG) and Lygos.
Jay’s research focuses on the metabolic engineering of microorganisms for environmentally friendly synthesis of drugs, chemicals, and fuels as well as for degradation of environmental contaminants. Jay received a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Nebraska and M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and did post-doctoral research in biochemistry at Stanford University. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for developing synthetic biology tools to engineer the antimalarial drug artemisinin. He is also a member of the National Academy of Inventors.
After the talk, there will be a borrel outside the lecture hall.
Abstract
Plants produce structurally complex therapeutics like vinblastine and QS-21, but reliance on plant extraction limits scalability. We engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a chassis to produce both molecules via modular, pathway-level rewiring. For vinblastine, we introduced 30 heterologous enzymes and performed 56 genetic edits to enable de novo biosynthesis of vindoline and catharanthine, precursors to the chemotherapeutic. For QS-21, we introduced 38 heterologous enzymes in triterpene, oxidation, glycosylation, and polyketide pathways, enabling biosynthesis of quillaic acid and its decorated analogues. This work establishes yeast as a versatile platform for scalable production and diversification of complex plant-derived therapeutics.