Projects

IMOMESIC - Integrating Modelling of Metabolism and Signalling towards an Application in Liver Cancer

One of the most challenging questions in cancer research is currently the interconnection of metabolism and signalling. An understanding of mechanisms that facilitate the physiological shift towards a proliferative metabolism in cancer cells is considered a major upcoming topic in oncology and is a key activity for future drug development. Due to the complexity of interrelations, a systems biology ...

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 ...

Microbial strains used in biotechnological industry need to produce their biotechnological products at high yield and at the same time they are desired to be robust to the intrinsic nutrient dynamics of large-scale bioreactors, most noticeably to transient limitations of carbon sources and oxygen. The engineering principles for robustness of metabolism to nutrient dynamics are however not yet well understood. The ROBUSTYEAST project aims to reveal these principles for microbial strain improvement ...

D-xylose is a major component of lignocellulose and is after D-glucose the most abundant monosaccharide on earth. However, D-xylose cannot be naturally utilised by several industrially relevant microorganisms. On the way to a strong bio-based economy in Europe, this widely available feedstock has to be made accessible for the sustainable microbial synthesis of value-added chemical building blocks to be used in a broad range of applications. The project aims at engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum ...

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 ...

Translating Systems Virology data into broad-spectrum antiviral Drugs

Escherichia coli is a well-established and the most widely used organism for the production of recombinant proteins (used in medical and industrial applications, as molecular biology reagents, etc.). Production of proteins is the most resource exhaustive process for the cells and therefore needs to be optimized to achieve maximal productivities. Natural environment of E. coli is much harsher compared to the near optimal growth conditions used in production processes. In order to survive cells ...

CropClock - Increasing Crops Biomass by Uncovering the Circadian Clock Network Using Dynamical Models

The circadian clock is an internal timing system that allows plants to predict daily and seasonal changes in light and temperature and thus to adapt photosynthesis, growth, and development to external conditions. The core oscillator is well understood in the model plant Arabidopsis, however, relatively little is known about the dynamic effects of the clock on agronomic behaviour of crop plants. ...

GMO free systems optimization of wine yeast for wine production by massive scale directed evolution

Designer microbial communities for fermented milk products: A Systems Biology Approach

ErasysApp Funders

Systems biology of bacterial methylotrophy for biotechnological