Biotechnology/Systems biology

Worldwide, an estimated 100,000 animal species produce toxins. Some serve to protect against predators, others to hunt prey. What many poisons have in common is that they can have the opposite effect in small doses: Important antihypertensives, anticoagulants and pain killers are based on animal toxins, and a toxin of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis is making waves as a biological insecticide. Unlike snakes or spiders, little is known about the toxins of predatory flies.

As people age, so does their genetic material. One of these aging mechanisms is methylation, in which small molecules, so-called methyl groups, are attached to the DNA. These methylations often have a regulatory function and are reversible. However, the overall extent of methylation increases over the course of a lifetime. In the "DrugTarget" project, Fraunhofer researchers have now developed a method for determining a person's age on the basis of methylations.

Crude oil is of great value to the chemical industry because of the carbon compounds it contains. Not only vegetable biomass, but also the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be considered as an alternative source of carbon for chemical processes - as long as these processes are profitable. Catalysts are a key element for economic efficiency. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) are working on optimizing such catalysts and processes.

It is another success for the Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant: In the pre-commercial lignocellulose biorefinery in Straubing, Bavaria, the company has now enzymatically processed around 30 metric tons of Miscanthus grass, also known as maiden silvergrass or elephant grass, into lignocellulose sugars and ethanol.

The bond between a fluorine atom and a carbon atom is the strongest single-bond in organic chemistry. Splitting it would be a reaction that occurs automatically over a period of years, but some enzymes shorten the reaction to a few seconds. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, the University of Potsdam and the University of Toronto in Canada have now documented in a highly detailed time-lapse film what exactly happens during this reaction in the enzyme fluoroacetate dehalogenase.

Ludwigshafen-based BASF, the world's largest chemical company, has acquired the Dutch company Isobionics, which specializes in the biotechnological production of fragrances and flavors. BASF also announced its cooperation with the US company Conagen, which produces biotechnological production strains used, among other things, for the production of vanillin.

Spider silk is - in relation to its weight - more tear-resistant and stretchable than synthetic fibers made of Kevlar or carbon. For a long time now, it has also been imitated industrially and used as a material, from aircraft construction or the textile industry to medicine. However, the secret behind the special properties of silk proteins was not yet fully understood.

The German life science company Bayer and the U.S. developer of biopharmaceuticals Arvinas are planning to adapt molecules of the cell's own system and use them to remove foreign or no longer needed proteins in order to protect agricultural plants from pathogens, insect pests and wild herbs. To this end, both companies have now announced the foundation of the joint venture Oerth Bio (pronounced "Earth").

New technological possibilities often raise new ethical questions. This currently applies to so-called genome editing, the precision intervention in the genome. The Max Planck Society has now made clear its position in a discussion paper on the new possibilities, which also separately evaluates the individual fields of application.

Scientists from Potsdam, Berlin and Grenoble were able to use ultra-fast 3D neutron imaging to visualize the transport of water in the soil and the subsequent absorption by the roots of lupines.