The development and production of enzymes and bioprocesses are the strengths of the Leipzig-based biotech company c-LEcta. In 2018, a financing round laid the foundation for establishing large-scale production of enzymes. Last year, the Leipzig-based company cracked the €10 million revenue mark and announced a move to a yet-to-be-built biotechnology campus building.

Whether dishwashing detergents, laundry producte or household cleaners: When it comes to dirt, manufacturers rely on surfactants. Until now, the majority of these surfactants have been produced synthetically. They are based on petroleum, are often not very skin-friendly and usually pollute the environment. But the trend is moving toward biosurfactants. These are produced by microorganisms from renewable raw materials and are biodegradable.

On February 1, 2022, the German Brain Biotech AG announced the acquisition of Breatec B.V. including the Comix activities. The Dutch distributor, formulator and blender of functional food ingredients is primarily intended to expand the Brain Group's enzyme portfolio and open up new market fields.

Casein and whey protein are essential for the characteristic taste and texture of cheese made from animal milk. Vegan cheese alternatives based on plant proteins have struggled to keep up in this regard. Berlin-based food tech start-up Formo has developed a biotechnological process that enables these milk proteins to be produced in the laboratory. Formo uses microorganisms to produce casein and whey protein. These have been converted so that yeasts produce the milk proteins.

Faster healing of damaged nerves and muscles - that's what researchers at the University of Bayreuth expect from specially spun fibers made from biotechnologically produced spider silk. Spider silk is non-toxic, well tolerated by the body and hardly colonized by microbes. At the same time, the material is tough, strong and biodegradable. For this reason, medicine is already testing it to create a support scaffold on which damaged nerve cells can regrow. So far, however, this process is still taking a very long time.

With its national bioeconomy strategy, the German government aims to support the shift from an economy based predominantly on fossil raw materials to a sustainable, biobased economy oriented toward natural material cycles. To leverage the potential of the bioeconomy, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports numerous research projects - including with international partners. This is where the Bioeconomy in the North (BiN) initiative, founded in 2017 with partners from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada and Germany, comes in.

Heat, drought, storms and pests have taken their toll on the forest in recent years. Spruces, pines and Douglas firs in particular are suffering massively from the ongoing drought. Reforestation is therefore a key task to make the ecosystem fit for the future. Mediterranean plants could be an alternative that will soon populate native forests, as researchers from the Bavarian Office of Forest Genetics (AWG) and the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA) have shown.