Neil D. Butler

Design of an exclusive obligate symbiosis for organism-based biological containment

This paper designs an exclusive obligate symbiosis to create a biological containment system where one microbe produces a non-standard amino acid, and another depends on it for survival, demonstrating a chemical-to-biological dependence for biocontainment.

Genome engineering allows selective conversions of terephthalaldehyde to multiple valorized products in bacterial cells

The paper demonstrates that genome engineering of E. coli improves TPAL retention and enables its conversion to valuable products like para-xylylenediamine.

Combinatorial gene inactivation of aldehyde dehydrogenases mitigates aldehyde oxidation catalyzed by resting cells of E. coli RARE strains

The paper demonstrates that combinatorial gene inactivation of aldehyde dehydrogenases in E. coli reduces aldehyde oxidation in resting cells, improving aldehyde bioconversion.

Reductive Enzyme Cascades for Valorization of PET Deconstruction Products

This paper demonstrates biocatalytic enzyme cascades that convert PET deconstruction products into valuable mono-amine and diamine building blocks.

De novo biosynthesis of para-nitro-L-phenylalanine in Escherichia coli

This paper designs a de novo biosynthetic pathway in E. coli to produce para-nitro-L-phenylalanine (pN-Phe) from glucose, achieving a maximum titer of 819 µM.