This document provides an introduction and overview of the course CE508 - Metabolic Engineering. It outlines the course details including instructor, meeting times, textbook, grading criteria, projects, and course objectives. The document then discusses key concepts in metabolic engineering including using recombinant DNA technology to direct the improvement of cellular properties and metabolic pathways. It describes metabolic engineering as a directed evolution strategy and explains the analytical and synthetic components including metabolic flux analysis and genetic engineering implementations.