RESEARCH AREA
Primary Areas of Interest
STRAIN DEVELOPMENT
To develop the procedures for obtaining new microbial metabolites through screening, chemical modification, biotransformation, interspecific protoplast fusion and gene cloning. The production of new metabolites with new isolates and/or new test methods is carried out during Screening-Selection process. Chemical modification and biotransformation are applied for change in a chemical molecule by means of a microbial or enzyme reaction of known microbial substances. We also use interspecific protoplast fusion, which is a recombination of genetic information from rather closely related producer strains to obtain new or hybrid substances. In this process genes may be transferred between unrelated strains which are producers of known substances.
FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY AND BIOREACTOR SYSTEM
Fermentation Technology provides the platform for culture selection, culture improvement and expression systems. Fermentation technology encompass a broad field, but within this profile we target the use of microorganisms and/or enzymes for production of compounds that find application in the energy, chemical, material, pharmaceutical and food ingredients. Eventhough fermentation processes have been used for generations, the requirement for sustainable production of energy and materials is demanding innovation and development of novel fermentation concepts. Our efforts are directed both to the development of cell factories and enzymes as well as of design of novel process concepts and technologies for fermentation processes.
We have a strong infrastructure with a large number of state-of-the-art bioreactors as well as a strong accompanying analytical platform that allows for careful analysis of fermentation products as well as intracellular metabolites and whole genome analysis. Furthermore, we also have a platform for enzyme discovery and heterologous production of target enzymes. We target the use of microorganisms and/or enzymes for production of compounds that find application in the energy, chemical, material, pharmaceutical and food ingredients.
BIOSEPARATION AND PRODUCT FORMULATION
Scalable and efficient purification of biological products is an important aspect in bioprocess and industrial application. Downstream processing of biological products is an effort-intensive operation due to the complexity of the crude feedstock and the necessity to retain their biological activity. The purification process of protein dominates 30-80% of the total production cost and this might become an obstruction in the commercialization of bioproducts. For the production of therapeutic enzymes and proteins, the cost of bioseparation contributes more than half (60-80%) of the final cost. Thus, development of product separation technology that can reduce the purification costs and improve the yield or purity of product is very important aspect in biomanufacturing.
BIOPROCESSING AND BIOMANUFACTURING ECONOMIC
Bioprocessing and biomanufacturing may involve significant social and environmental costs. The clean-up costs of hazardous waste, for example, may outweigh the benefits of a product that creates it. Hazardous materials may expose workers to health risks. These costs are now well known and there is effort to address them by improving efficiency, reducing waste, using industrial symbiosis, and eliminating harmful chemicals.The negative costs of bioprocessing and bio manufacturing can also be addressed legally. Biomanufacturers can be subjected to regulations and pollution taxes to offset the environmental costs of biomanufacturing activities. Surveys and analyses of trends and issues in biomanufacturing and investment focus on:
the nature and sources of the considerable variations in biomanufacturing and industrial-economic growth;
competitiveness; and
attractiveness to foreign direct.
We plan to examine the features and factors affecting particular key aspects of bioprocessing and biomanufacturing development. We tried to compare the production and investment invarious countries and regions, and presented case studies of growth and performance in important individual industries and market-economic sectors.