ENGINEERING CELLBASED FACTORIES: Genomic data boost metabolic engineering; organisms are tailored to produce chemicals

SOME EXPERTS PREDICT THAT biotechnology will produce 20% of industrial chemicals by 2010. Advances in basic knowledge and technology are moving biotechnology in this direction; however, the challenges of commercialization are complex and formidable. The world's most ubiquitous and useful commodities spring from limited—and limiting—wells. More than 90% of the chemicals used in industry are made from petroleum products. Numerous drugs are derived from rare or endangered plants or organisms. Some chemicals are generated by processes so hazardous that the compounds aren't even made in the U.S. It's long been presumed that the future of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries lies largely with microbes. With help from biotechnology, common bugs like the bacterium Escherichia coli and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can perform complicated syntheses, producing drug precursors from glucose, ethanol from waste biomass, or industrially important chemicals from "green" starting materials. At the outset, this...