UC Davis Hellman Fellowship (2012) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) (2010) Appointed to faculty, UC Davis (2009) Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA (2006-2009) Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona (2002-2006) Ph.D. Kyoto University (2002)

Chemical Biology

An increased understanding of system properties underlying cellular networks enables us to construct novel systems by assembling the components and the control systems into new combinations. We are applying this approach to the field of metabolic engineering, which strives for the optimization of desired properties and functions, such as the production of valuable biochemicals. The production of valuable chemicals from microorganisms suites to solve some significant challenges, such as converting renewable feedstocks into energy-rich biofuels. Currently, our main focus is developing synthetic organisms capable of converting CO2 directly to biofuels.

(39) Oliver, J.W.K. & Atsumi, S. A carbon sink pathway increases carbon productivity in cyanobacteria Metab Eng. in press DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2015.03.006 Tashiro, Y., Rodriguez, G.M. & Atsumi, S. 2-Keto acids based biosynthesis pathways for renewable fuels and chemicals J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol. 42(3): 361-373 (2015) [Pudmed] (Book Chapter 4) McEwen, J.T., & Atsumi, S. Metabolic Engineering for the Biobased Conversion of CO2 to Biofuels In Industrial Biocatalysis (ed. Grunwald, P., Pan Stanford Publishing) Rodriguez, G.M. & Atsumi, S. Toward aldehyde and alkane production by removing aldehyde reductase activity in Escherichia coli Metab Eng. 25: 227-237 (2014) [Pudmed] Nozzi, N.E., Desai, S.H., Case, A.N., & Atsumi, S. Metabolic engineering for Higher alcohol produciton Metab Eng. 25: 174-182 (2014) [Pudmed] McEwen, J.T. & Atsumi, S. Engineering trophic diversity into photosynthetic microbes Biofuels 5(3): 199-201 (2014) Oliver, J.W.K. & Atsumi, S. Metabolic design for cyanobacterial chemical synthesis Photosynth Res. 120(3): 249-261 (2014) [Pudmed] Rodriguez, G.M.*, Tashiro, Y.*, & Atsumi, S. Expanding ester biosynthesis in Escherichia coli Nat Chem Biol. 10: 259-265 (2014) [Pudmed] *Contributed equally to this work (News & Views by B. Barney) Oliver, J.W.K.*, Machado, I.M.P.*, Yoneda, H., & Atsumi, S. Combinatorial optimization of cyanobacterial 2,3-butanediol production Metab Eng. 22: 76-82 (2014) [Pudmed] *Contributed equally to this work Desai, S.H., Rabinovitch-Deere, C.A., Tashiro, Y., & Atsumi, S. Isobutanol production from cellobiose in Escherichia coli Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 98(8): 3727-3736 (2014) [Pudmed] (Book Chapter 3) Nozzi, N.E., & Atsumi, S. Biosynthesis of fuels In McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology 2014 (McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing) (Book Chapter 2) McEwen, J.T., Tashiro, Y., & Atsumi, S. Higher chain alcohols from non-fermentative pathways In Biofuels: From microbes to molecules (ed. Lu, X., Caister Academic Press) Kusakabe, T., Tatsuke, T., Tsuruno, K., Hirokawa, Y., Atsumi, S., Liao, J.C., & Hanai, T. Engineering a synthetic pathway in cyanobacteria for isopropanol production directly from carbon dioxide and light Metab Eng. 20: 101-108 (2013) [Pudmed] (Book Chapter 1) Oliver, J.W.K. & Atsum, S. Cyanobacterial biofuel and chemical production for CO2 sequestration. In Natural and artificial photosynthesis: Solar power as an energy source (ed. Razeghifard, R., John Wiley & Sons) Yoneda, H., Tantillo, D.J., & Atsumi, S. Biological production of 2-butanone in Escherichia coli ChemSusChem 7(1): 92-95 (2014) [Pudmed] Nozzi, N.E., Oliver, J.W.K. & Atsumi, S. Photosynthetic approaches to chemical biotechnology Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 1:7. (2013) Desai, S.H. & Atsumi, S. Photosynthetic approaches to chemical biotechnology Curr Opin Biotechnol. 14(6): 1031-1036 (2013) [Pudmed] Rabinovitch-Deere, C.A., Oliver, J.W.K, Rodriguez, G.M., & Atsumi, S. Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering Approaches to Produce Biofuels Chem Rev. 113(7): 4611-4632 (2013) [Pudmed] McEwen, J.T., Machado, I.M.P, Connor, M.R., & Atsumi, S. Engineering Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 to grow continuously in diurnal conditions Appl Environ Microbiol. 79(5): 1668-1675 (2013) [Pudmed] (selected for "Spotlight" by the Editors) Oliver, J.W.K.*, Machado, I.M.P.*, Yoneda, H., & Atsumi, S. Cyanobacterial conversion of carbon dioxideto 2,3-butanediol Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 110(4): 1249-1254 (2013) *Contributed equally to this work [Pudmed] Rodriguez, G.M. & Atsumi, S. Isobutyraldehyde production from Escherichia coli by removing aldehyde reductase activity Microb Cell Fact. 11:90 (2012) [Pudmed] (qualified as "Highly accessed") Lamsen, E.N. & Atsumi, S. Recent progress in synthetic biology for microbialproduction of C3–C10 alcohols Front Microbiol. 3:196 (2012) [Pudmed] Machado, I.M.P. & Atsumi, S. Cyanobacterial biofuel production J Biotechnol. 162: 50-56 (2012) [Pudmed] Rodriguez, G.M. & Atsumi, S. Synthetic biology approaches to produce C3-C6 alcohols from microorganisms

Curr Chem Biol. 6: 32-41 (2012)