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 ...

The goal of the project is to establish a new biotechnological platform for the production of hydroxy-amino acids, since the current production of these important building blocks is very expensive. Enzyme engineering, systems biotechnology and metabolic engineering will be used in a synthetic biology approach.

Rationale: Individuals with a cancer predisposition due to a mutation in the paradigm tumor suppressor gene RB1, have a high risk to develop the childhood cancer retinoblastoma (Rb). Biopsies are not possible in Rb, before treatment selection. Heritable Rb patients have also a high risk to develop other types of second primary, either childhood or adult, malignancies (SPMs), notably sarcomas and melanomas. Remarkably, SPMs are now the leading cause of death in heritable-Rb-survivors. Unfortunately, ...

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 ...

Silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation

Within the e:Bio - Innovationswettbewerb Systembiologie (Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)), the SulfoSYSBIOTECH consortium (10 partners), aim to unravel the complexity and regulation of the carbon metabolic network of the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus (optimal growth at 80°C and pH 3) in order to provide new catalysts ‘extremozymes’ for utilization in White Biotechnology.

Based on the available S. solfataricus genome scale metabolic model (Ulas et al., 2012) ...