Metabolic Engineering of Unicellular Systems and Bioproduction
Microorganisms, unicellular algae, and mammalian cell lines are applied for the production of a broad spectrum of valuable products. These include the sustainable production of bioproducts with microorganisms (monomers for biopolymers, secondary metabolites, amino acids and proteins, especially enzymes), the production of recombinant therapeutic and diagnostic proteins in animal cell lines, studies of plant growth and development, the optimisation of the sunlight-to-biomass conversion in phototrophic microorganisms, the production of biofuels with heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms, and the protein production and secretion as well as the synthesis of hydrocarbon compounds and the biocatalytic H2 production with microalgae.
Speakers: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch and Prof. Dr. N. Sewald

Selection of current projects
- Carbon nanomembranes as model system to explore nanoscale heterogeneity and vectorial functionality of protein systems
Responsible: Prof. Dr. K.-J. Dietz
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - Biotechnologisches Produktionsverfahren zur industriellen Herstellung von Fettnitrilen aus Fetten, Ölen und deren Derivaten (Fettnitrile)
Responsible: Prof. Dr. H. Gröger
Funded by: Funded by: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) - Merging different “worlds of catalysis” towards unique syntheses: Building bridges between chemo- and biocatalytic core technologies from Osaka University & Bielefeld University
Responsible: Prof. Dr. H. Gröger, Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - SiMBal – Single-cell mass balancing of synthetic co-cultures: Quantitative, spatio-temporally resolved analysis of mass exchange between microbial cells
Responsible: Jun.-Prof. Dr. A. Grünberger
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - DISTAP – Distruptive Technologies for Agricultural Precision
Responsible: Prof. Dr. J. Kalinowski
Funded by: Singapore-MIT Alliance for Science and Technology (SMART) - Analyse und Optimierung der Acarviosyl-Maltose-Biosynthese in Actinoplanes spec.
Responsible: Prof. Dr. J. Kalinowski, Prof. Dr. A. Pühler
Funded by: industrial partner - MERIT – Microalgae as renewable innovative green cell factories
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: ERA-CoBioTech, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) - FSAC – Fettsäure-sekretierende Algen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) - Elucidating the regulatory network of light harvesting in photoheterotrophic microalgae
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - PHOTOFUEL – Developing next generation technologies for biofuels and sustainable alternative fuels
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: European Commission (EU Horizon 2020) - Wissensbasierte Biotechnologie: Entwicklung von intelligenten Screeningmethoden für eine erhöhte Xanthanbiosynthese
Responsible: Prof. Dr. A. Pühler, Prof. Dr. K. Niehaus
Funded by: Industrial Partner - Späte Diversifizierung von Peptiden durch Übergangsmetall-katalysierte Kreuzkupplungen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. N. Sewald
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - CLIB-Kompetenzzentrum Biotechnologie (CKB)
Coordination: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Subprojects: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse, Prof. Dr. K. Niehaus, Prof. Dr. T. Noll, Prof. Dr. V.F Wendisch
Founded by: Europäischer Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE-NRW) - ForceYield – Maßgeschneiderte biobasierte Inhaltsstoffe für eine wettbewerbsfähige Bioökonomie: Maßgeschneiderter Zentralstoffwechsel für die stöchiometrische Hochertragsbioproduktion von Chemikalien aus landwirtschaftlichen Abfällen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) - INDIE – Biotechnological production of sustainable indole
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: ERACoBioTech, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL/FNR) - Direct utilization of agroresidual biomass for the production of alpha,omega-diamines as well as omega-amino acids:
strain and process development using Corynebacterium glutamicum
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF-IB) - C1Pro – Microbial conversion of C1 to value-added products by integrated systems and synthetic biology
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: ERACoBioTech, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL/FNR)