Engineering of Microbial Factories for the Production of Useful Compounds
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbial Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 808
Special Issue Editors
Interests: metabolic engineering; recombinant protein production; microbial fermentation; bio-based chemicals production; biofuel production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: synthetic biology; recombinant protein production; smart microbe design; enzyme engineering; bioprocess engineering; chemicals biosynthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
(1) Introduction
Microorganisms have long been central in biotechnology. The advances in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, omics, computational, and machine learning technologies have significantly engineered microbes with the ability to convert simple substrates into complex compounds of interest. Daily consumables mainly result from conventional chemical synthesis using fossil-based feedstocks, leading to hazardous waste and CO2 emissions. This issue has further increased the industrial interest in applying microbial cell factories to develop environment-friendly and sustainable production systems that synthesize valuable molecules, including pharmaceuticals, biofuels, chemicals, biodegradable materials, etc.
Despite these advances, the practical application of microbial production systems still encounters many challenges. Issues such as low product yields and productivity, metabolic burden, pathway complexity, strain instability, and inefficient scale-up must be addressed before the potential of microbial factories can be acknowledged. Therefore, it is scientifically compelling and industrially essential for the continued research and innovation in microbial engineering and bioprocess.
(2) Aim of the Special Issue
This Special Issue aims to provide a platform to compile the cutting-edge research and comprehensive reviews focusing on genetic modification and process engineering of microbial cell factories for the sustainable and efficient production of valuable compounds. Contributions that address fundamental insights and novel findings are welcome, with particular interest in studies that demonstrate helpful production strategies to overcome current technology bottlenecks.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Metabolic engineering to improve production yield and productivity
Genome editing technologies to reprogram microbes
Omics-based strategies for strain improvement
Exploration of novel microbial chassis
In silico design and AI-assisted design of microbial cell factories
Fermentation process development and scale-up
Prof. Dr. Yun-Peng Chao
Dr. Chung-Jen Chiang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- microbial factories
- metabolic engineering
- synthetic biology
- sustainable bioprocess
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