[DIYbio] Targeting Compounds for Biosynthesis using Data

After spending 15 years working in tech as a software engineer + exec and eye-opening psychedelic experience, I've decided to pivot my life into a new direction: documenting my journey to self-learn genetic engineering and the development of a new product that helps mankind.

It's early days, but I have a working site and social media up here if you'd like to learn more: https://everymanbio.com/ + https://www.instagram.com/everymanbio/ 

One of the projects I'm using to concentrate and advance my learning is to engineer an organism and use it to produce a valuable compound en masse. The idea isn't new; a couple of youngsters recently utilized this technique to create a $200M company that produces hydrogen peroxide with yeast.

I'm enthralled by the idea of using something like Saccharomyces cerevisiae or e.coli to produce a highly valued compound at low-cost and reasonable biological efficiency. 

My question is this: how can I use public data sources to identify potential targets for biosynthesis? Given I can code and things like crawling, big data collection and analysis are well within my wheelhouse, I can't help but to think of the value it might offer to me and the community in narrowing in on which compounds would be best suited for biosynthesis from am GMO'd organism.

But! I don't know what I don't know and I could use some insights into the following:

• What features or attributes make a compound a feasible target for biosynthesis? What makes it completely infeasible?
• What data sources can be used to search and assess compound targets? I'm looking for ways to both quantify high-demand /valuable compounds and compounds that are suited for biosynthesis.
  

I realize this is probably fairly wide in scope of a question, but I hope to at least get the conversation going and to be pointed in the right direction.

If you'd like to reach out to me directly to discuss the idea or explore a collaboration, please feel free to email me josh@everymanbio.com

With much gratitude,

Josh McGinnis, Founder of EverymanBio