University of Rostock

Bioprocesses for the optimized, integrated production of butyl esters from sustainable resources (BESTER)

Industrial Biotechnology is a key enabling technology to produce a plethora of different bio-based products from sustainable resources and a driver for developing the bio-based economy in Europe. Systems biology and Synthetic biology are recent additions to the biotechnology toolbox that in interplay with bioprocess and chemical process technology can help developing competitive industrial
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The project addresses the generation and establishment of programmed pacemaker cells for an in vitro drug testing possibility to perform predictive tests. This may lead to an improved treatment of cardiac arrhythmias or an accurate identification of potential drug molecules at a very early stage of development. Important benefits will arise in verifying the safety of a wide variety of medicines while reducing animal testing.

This project is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) program of the
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Sustainable co-production is the short form of the research project “Tobacco as sustainable production platform of the natural biopolymer cyanophycin as co-product to oil and protein”. It combines plant and industrial biotechnology to increase the value of commercially grown tobacco with products that can sustainably substitute fossil raw materials. We aim to establish a new economically feasible production system for the biopolymer cyanophycin (CGP) as a by-product of tobacco without relevant
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The gut–brain axis (GBA) provides a bidirectional homeostatic communication between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system. The interdisciplinary collaboration is going to fully explore a first comprehensive GBA cross-disease map of genetic, expression and regulatory changes associated with ulcerative colitis and schizophrenia disease entities.

Dysfunction of this axis can have pathophysiological consequences. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >300
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There is an urgent need for novel antibiotics to fight life-threatening infections and to counteract the increasing problem of propagating antibiotic resistance. Recently, new molecular genetic and biochemical tools have provided insight into the enormous unexploited genetic pool of environmental microbial biodiversity for new antibiotic compounds. New tools for more efficiently lifting this hidden treasure are needed to strengthen competitiveness of European industry, as well as for a cost-saving
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Salmon farmed on modern feeds contains less of the healthy, long-chain fatty acids (EPA and DHA) than before. Up until the turn of the millennium, farmed salmon were fed fish oil as a replacement for their omega-3 rich natural prey. However, fish oil is now a scarce resource, and more than half of the fat in modern feeds comes from plant oils that are inexpensive, but devoid of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. How can we increase the omega-3 content of salmon on sustainable feeds?

One option is
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The Systems Biology Service Center of de.NBI (de.NBI-SysBio) provides bioinformatics support and a standards-based data management for systems biology projects, with focus on the provenance of experimental results and on the reproducibility of modeling experiments, as well as high-quality curated biochemical data to modelers and experimentalists.
The node concentrates on two tools for the data management in life sciences research: SEEK, a catalogue for storage, registration and exchange of data
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The project "INtegrative COllaborative modeling in systems MEdicine" aims at connecting different heterogenous datasets and individual models within systems medicine.