mCRISTAR is a tool for refactoring biosynthetic gene clusters with a minimum amount of DNA sequencing. The basic idea is to use homologous recombination to swap out inactive/silent promototers for active promoters in order to activate gene clusters in a heterologous host.

Currently mCRISTAR is designed for use with a specific set of vectors and promoters. Gene clusters are refactored in yeast and homolously expressed in Streptomyces Albus.