Biotechnology/Systems biology

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.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a major component of the cannabis plant and is known primarily for its intoxicating effects. In a weakened form, the natural substance has also long been used in medicine to alleviate neurological diseases and pain. However, isolating the natural substance in pure form from the hemp plant is very costly. Therefore, such plant compounds are increasingly produced biotechnologically using bacteria such as Escherichia coli or the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Since 2014, the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) has annually selected a significant organism from the field of microbiology. With this year's decision for the eukaryotic unicellular organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the choice has fallen on one of the oldest and best-known production organisms in biotechnology.

Chocolate, potato chips and organic fuel all have one thing in common - they all contain the popular resource palm oil. However, the cultivation of palm oil is controversial. Worldwide, around 19 million hectares of rainforest have already been cleared for this purpose. This not only releases large quantities of the greenhouse gas CO₂, but also destroys important habitats for flora and fauna.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator has distributed €627 million to 99 startups and SMEs in its latest and largest funding round to date. Twelve German companies were among the beneficiaries - including BIOWEG, CO2BioClean and Genome Biologics. The funds come from the Horizon Europe program.

Whether boiled, fried or for baking: Some people find it hard to imagine an everyday life without eggs. According to the Federal Office of Food and Agriculture, 19.9 billion eggs are consumed in Germany every year. This corresponds to a per capita consumption of 239 eggs per year on average. While plant-based alternatives have long been available on the market for other animal products, there are hardly any vegan options for eggs.

The prize money of 300 euros is rather symbolic, but attention is guaranteed: Kykeon Biotech won the "Founders' Pitch" of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) on November 10, 2021. The young team convinced the twelve investors and more than 120 online viewers with its process for the cell-free production of artificial proteins. They had to share the audience award with 'Inflatable Lunar Habitat', a project that designed a portable and inflatable research tent for use on the moon.

The National Research Data Infrastructure for Microbiota Research (NFDI4Microbiota) aims to structure microbiology data and thus make it more accessible. This is intended to help research teams leverage the data and organize their own data so that it is accessible to other research groups. The project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to an annual tune of 85 million euros, aims to support up to 30 consortia over five years to pave the way for better data management nationwide.