One of the biggest current societal challenges is to develop a sustainable bioeconomy and reduce our dependency on finite natural resources. Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria with a versatile metabolism. Some fast-growing strains have doubling times of two hours – similar to certain yeast strains. Their photosynthetic capabilities combined with a fast-growth phenotype make them attractive for biotechnology. However, technical and biological limitations will have to be overcome to achieve scalable systems.

Cyanobacteria typically are known to have a blue-green colour derived from their pigment profile of chlorophylls, carotenoids and phycobilins. Therefore, their native capacity for pigment production is a promising starting point to extend the pigment profile by genetic and metabolic engineering. In this talk, I will give an overview of current work on exploring the potential of sustainable pigment production in cyanobacteria to produce yellow and red pigments.

After the presentation, there will be a career discussion panel for early career CeBiTec scientists in G01-101.