Dr Claudia Vickers I am a Senior Research Fellow at Ray Ban Sale $19.99 Ray Ban Sale $19.99 the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN). My areas of research include basic biology of isoprenoid compounds, industrial production of isoprenoids, carbohydrate metabolism in microbes, and genetic diversity in baobab trees. These diverse areas are linked though fundamental biology and industrial applications of natural compounds. In particular, I have an interest in using biology to replace current industrial practices (largely based on finite petrochemical resources) with sustainable, environmentally friendly approaches. To this end, I use the tools of systems and synthetic biology for metabolic engineering of organisms. Metabolic engineering: the rational redesign of organisms to for production of specific industrially useful compounds Production of petrochemical replacements via microbial fermentation is more environmentally Ray Ban Sale friendly, uses renewable feedstocks, and Ray Ban Sale $19.99 aims to be sustainable over the long term. For these reasons, the biological functions and biosynthesis of isoprenoids are of great interest. The Isoprenoid Program has several aims: Understanding carbon flux and metabolic control of the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathways Up regulating carbon flux through isoprenoid pathways to achieve industrially relevant production of isoprenoids in microbial systemsMore on the Industrial Isoprenoid Engineering Program To develop bioprocesses for production of industrially useful biochemicals, a carbon and energy source is required for microbial fermentations. Sucrose is attractive for this purpose for several reasons. It is abundant and is a primary agricultural industry in Australia. Unlike glucose from corn (the primary biofuel feedstock in other bioprocesses), use of sucrose for bioprocesses doesn directly compete with important protein sources for nutrition. Eighty per cent of Australia 4.5 5 million tonnes per annum sucrose crop is exported, and this represents a substantial carbon source that could be converted into value added products. To capitalise on this possibility, the Sucrose to Bioproducts program is aimed towards developing a broader understanding of carbohydrate metabolism in microbes, in particular sucrose and glucose. More on the Isoprene is a volatile 5 carbon hydrocarbon emitted by many plant species. It is highly reactive, and is produced in such large quantities from the biosphere that it substantially affects the oxidising potential of the atmosphere. In addition, plants can loose relatively large amounts of carbon and energy during formation of isoprene. We assume that this loss is supported by a biological benefit. I am investigating the biological role of isoprene emission using both plants and model microbes. Tobacco, which does not normally synthesise isoprene, has been