Presentation Information
[3SBT-15]Harnessing Plant SynBio for Light-Driven Biomanufacturing on Earth and in Space
○Jenny Mortimer1 (1. Adelaide University (Australia))
Keywords:
space,biomanufacturing,anti-cancer,radiation,nutrition
Plants offer unique advantages as light-driven biofactories that convert CO2, water, and photons into biomass and high-value products. The ARC Centre of Excellent in Plants for Space (P4S) leverages synthetic biology to engineer plants for space exploration while simultaneously addressing terrestrial challenges in sustainable indoor farming and biomanufacturing.
Through synthetic biology approaches including CRISPR-based genome editing, synthetic gene circuits, and metabolic engineering, we are creating plants with enhanced traits for remote controlled growth environments in space including increased radiation tolerance, optimised nutrition, and on-demand production of therapeutics. These innovations translate directly to sustainable controlled environment agriculture on Earth, where resource efficiency and year-round production are increasingly critical.
I will discuss some of our ongoing projects, including our role in NASA's LEAF (Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora) project, a deployed instrument that is part of the crewed lunar-landing Artemis III program. Here, we will grow and return samples of plants from the the lunar surface, allowing us to investigate molecular plant responses to lunar gravity and radiation.
Through synthetic biology approaches including CRISPR-based genome editing, synthetic gene circuits, and metabolic engineering, we are creating plants with enhanced traits for remote controlled growth environments in space including increased radiation tolerance, optimised nutrition, and on-demand production of therapeutics. These innovations translate directly to sustainable controlled environment agriculture on Earth, where resource efficiency and year-round production are increasingly critical.
I will discuss some of our ongoing projects, including our role in NASA's LEAF (Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora) project, a deployed instrument that is part of the crewed lunar-landing Artemis III program. Here, we will grow and return samples of plants from the the lunar surface, allowing us to investigate molecular plant responses to lunar gravity and radiation.
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