Projects

Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes performing oxygenic photosynthesis. Theyhad and have tremendous influence on the biogeochemical cycles on Earth. Recently,cyanobacteria are increasingly investigated as cell factories for a sustainableeconomy. Despite their global, environmental and rising economic importance, ourknowledge on the regulation of their primary metabolism is fragmented.Cyanobacteria switch between photoautotrophic and heterotrophic modes ofmetabolism during day/night cycles or ...

Biomining is a biotechnological process carried out in many parts of the world that exploits acid loving microorganisms to extract metals from sulphide minerals. One industrial biomining method is called ‘heap bioleaching’ where typically copper containing minerals are piled into very large heaps, acid and microorganisms are added to the top and the soluble metal is collected at the heap base.

The role of the different types of microbes in the process is to speed up metal solubilisation by oxidising ...

Background- Thermophilic organisms are composed of both bacterial and archaeal species. The enzymes isolated from these species and from other extreme habitats are more robust to temperature, organic solvents and proteolysis. They often have unique substrate specificities and originate from novel metabolic pathways. Thermophiles as well as their stable enzymes (‘thermozymes’) are receiving increased attention for biotechnological applications.

The proposed project will establish thermophilic in ...