3. Metabolic engineering

The industrial revolution of the 19th century and the associated technological advances have profoundly altered our society, transforming it from an agrarian and artisanal era to a commercial and technological one. However, increasing consumption in our societies is not compatible with ecological urgency via dependence on non-renewable resources. Since the early 1990s, biotechnologies have emerged as a new alternative, not only because they are able to produce molecules and materials from renewable resources with unquestionable efficiency, but also because they considerably broaden the catalog of these resources. To achieve this, it is necessary to build and modulate endogenous metabolic pathways, or insert artificial pathways into an organism, in order to optimize yields and ensure industrial production.