Volatilome Detection Platform

Developing a volatilome detection platform for functional metagenomic screening and microbial cell factory engineering.

Working Group: Biomining

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are small-molecule chemicals that remain difficult to monitor in chassis organisms despite their central role in microbial metabolism, cell-to-cell signaling, adaptation, and response. This project applies a multiomic approach, integrating metabolomics, lipidomics, proteomics, and volatilomics, to characterize large-insert fosmid libraries hosted in EPI300 chassis organisms using current mass spectrometry instrumentation. Core activities focus on designing analytical chemistry platforms for VOC detection and screening, enabling baseline profiling of VOC production in E. coli EPI300 chassis. This platform will support screening methods compatible with fosmid library screening, permitting validation screens to identify genes encoding targeted VOC production. Collectively, this work will test whether functional metagenomic screening can recover genes involved in VOC production from uncultivated microorganisms, and whether VOC profiling of host chassis can establish a baseline framework for engineering targeted production of value-added VOC compounds.