Harnessing Plant Metabolism for the Bio-Based Economy

For millennia, humans have tapped the products of plant metabolism for food, feed, fiber, fuel and medicines. As the world’s population approaches 9 billion by 2050, these necessities will be required in unprecedented amounts, requiring production strategies that are sustainable and reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Plants show remarkable metabolic plasticity and diversity, but meeting the above challenges will also require engineering plants to produce new products designed to meet the needs of an ever growing population. The importance of improving production of plant products is poorly appreciated by the public at large, but biology is now poised to facilitate major advances in the design of plants across the whole spectrum of potential uses. In this context, the 2015 Plant Metabolic Engineering GRC will (i) highlight new advances in understanding plant metabolism, its flexibility and its underlying control mechanisms, (ii) discuss new technologies that allow for engineering of complex pathways, targeted gene replacements and non-transgenic approaches to genetic improvement, and (iii) present real world examples where plant metabolic engineering is leading to new products that are reaching the marketplace. These latter presentations will provide the audience with an up to date assessment of both the scientific and regulatory challenges of moving metabolic engineering from concept to reality. Short talks will also be selected from poster abstracts submitted as part of the registration process. Junior scientists, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students will present their work in poster sessions and interact with global leaders in the field of plant metabolic engineering from both academia and industry. The collegial atmosphere of this conference, with extended discussion sessions and informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provide a unique forum for networking and interactions across disciplines.