Bio-Inspired Energy Conversion

All life forms continuously struggle against entropy, and all life forms require external energy sources to do so. Photosynthetic organisms have conquered one of the most abundant of such sources on planet Earth in absorbing and utilizing solar energy. For the most part, such energy is being used for cellular maintenance and biomass assimilation, but for us other products and outcomes can be just as enticing, if not more so. Therefore, we aim to engineer photosynthetic microbes such as cyanobacteria to redirect parts of their energy harvest into the biosynthesis of valuable compounds like hydrogen and bioavailable nitrogen, or to utilize light-driven proton-gradient formation beyond the biosynthesis of ATP.