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
- 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) - INTERfaces - Heterogenous biocatalytic reaction cascades training network
Responsible: Prof. Dr. H. Gröger
Funded by: European Commission (EU H2020/MSCA/ITN/EID)
Twitter: @INTERfaces2020 - SiMBal – Single-cell mass balancing of synthetic co-cultures: Quantitative, spatio-temporally resolved analysis of mass exchange between microbial cells
Responsible: Prof. Dr. A. Grünberger
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - 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)
Twitter: @MeritProject - BiNäA - Biologischer Nährstofftransfer durch Mikroalgen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: Europaischer Landwirtschaftsfonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums (ELER) unter Beteiligung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen - AlgaSubst – Gentechnikfreie Entwicklung eines Chlorella-Stammes mit höherkonzentrierten wertgebenden Inhaltsstoffen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. O. Kruse
Funded by: ZIM program of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy - Wissensbasierte Biotechnologie: Entwicklung von intelligenten Screeningmethoden für eine erhöhte Xanthanbiosynthese
Responsible: Prof. Dr. K. Niehaus, Prof. Dr. A. Pühler
Funded by: Industrial Partner - Späte Diversifizierung von Peptiden durch Übergangsmetall-katalysierte Kreuzkupplungen
Responsible: Prof. Dr. N. Sewald
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG) - Magicbullet::Reloaded - Small-Molecule Drug Conjugates for Targeted Delivery in Tumor Therapy
Responsible: Prof. Dr. N. Sewald
Funded by: European Commission (EU H2020/MSCA)
Twitter: @MagicbulletR - 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
Funded 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) - Hydroxy functionalization
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: Industrial partner - 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) - SI-AA-Cell - Biosynthetic approach to amino acids an amino acid precursors labeled with stable isotopes (13C,15N): applications for mammalian cell cultures
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: ZIM program of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy - SIDESTREAM - Secondary bio-production of low trophic organisms utilizing side streams from the Blue and Green sectors to produce novel feed ingredients for European aquaculture
Responsible: Prof. Dr. V.F. Wendisch
Funded by: ERACoBlueBio, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMEL/PTJ) - The integration of the cyclophilin 20-3 and 2-cysteine peroxiredoxin thiol switches in the redox regulatory network of the chloroplast
Responsible: Prof. Dr. K.-J. Dietz
Funded by: German Research Foundation (DFG)