Our group aims to understand and optimize production of biomass, bioproducts, and biofuel in algae. To achieve these objectives, we use Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Phaeodactylum tricornutum as model organisms and carry out bioprospecting in the UAE for algae adapted to this region. We integrate high-throughput experimental platforms with large-scale computational modeling, including constraint-based metabolic network analysis, to reveal the metabolic circuitries encoded in algal genomes and how the coded information can be utilized for improving algal productivity. We use synthetic biology to alter algal metabolism for higher productivity.

Systems Biology

• Chlamydomonas metabolic network reconstruction and analysis
• Algal and plant stress responses
• Algal interactomes
• Therapeutic target gene prediction in non-algal systems

Algal Genomics and Biofuel

• Algal bio-prospecting in the UAE and their genomics
• Mutagenesis and selection for increased lipid production in algae
• The 100 and 500 algal genome projects

Synthetic Biology

• Construction of Chlamydomonas regulatory ORFeome
• Improving diatom photosynthetic efficiency
• Construction of synthetic algal chromosomes
• Synthetic ORFeomes