Microbial Metabolism and Biocatalysis

Overview

1. Aspects of microbial metabolism, especially pertaining to environmental nutrient cycles.
2. Introduction to gene mining from microbial metagenomes
3. Aspects of protein engineering including directed evolution
4. Application of enzymes and proteins to biotechnology applications, including biocatalysis.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand how some recent concepts in bioprocesses have impact across industrial & environmental applications.
2. Appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of modern biotechnology, especially the interplay of microbial metabolism and environmental biotechnology.
3. Be able to translate fundamental science discoveries into technology innovation in the field of biocatalysis.
4. Demonstrate scientific writing skills.
5. Analyse gene/protein sequence data in a biocatalysis context using bioinformatics tools (through lab based learning).
6. Develop critical skills in molecular analysis of microbial proteins and related biochemical pathways that can be applied to solve real world technical problems.

Skills

None

Assessment

Students must attain an overall module mark of at least 40 %