SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR SERIES Interdisciplinary Physics Seminar Friday, 23 March 2012 at 11:30am Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg. Refreshments at 11:15 Speaker: Ramon Gonzalez Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering, Rice University Title: Realizing the Promise of Engineered Metabolism Abstract: Biological systems are capable of performing many useful functions with potential applications in energy and chemical production, environmental remediation, pharmaceutical production, and agricultural systems. However, their full potential remains unrealized due to critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how these systems function and in our ability to engineer and control them. Our research seeks to fill in these gaps by designing and implementing novel (metabolic) engineering strategies to optimize the performance of biological systems. In this talk I will highlight recent progress in these areas with special emphasis on the development of new metabolic engineering platforms for the efficient production of advanced fuels and chemicals from diverse feedstocks.