Countless advances have occurred in synthetic biology, which has focused on microorganisms that are easy to grow, domesticate and proliferate under standard laboratory conditions. Yet, domesticated microbes are often devoid of the very traits that we want to exploit most for biotechnology. The most successful biological products in nature are built almost entirely by unusual microorganisms, many of which have unique growth habits and are unwieldy. For biotechnology to advance, we need to unlock the previously unaccessed genetic diversity in nature’s extreme microbes and harness their innate power.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Biofoundry for Extreme and Exceptional Fungi, Archaea, and Bacteria (ExFAB) operates a first-of-its-kind facility, open to industry and academia from across the nation, that empowers researchers to understand and manipulate the extreme microbes in our environment. Through the novel, state-of-the-art infrastructure and workflows in our automated lab facility, the NSF ExFAB BioFoundry will enable:
