Genetically engineered microorganisms are widely used as microbial cell factories for production of industrial and medical useful chemicals, such as medicines, recombinant proteins, substituents for food and feed, and platform chemicals. Today, nearly all proteins used in industry and medicine are produced recombinant, and microbial cell factories more and more substitute for traditional chemical industry for production of chemicals. This makes biotechnological production more cost-, energy- and environmentally friendly.

The main research focus is on using combined Systems- and Synthetic biology approaches to design, construct and understand microbial cell factories for sustainable production of useful chemicals and recombinant proteins. In particular we have high focus on the thermophilic and methylotrophic bacterium Bacillus methanolicus as a model system to manipulate and understand C1 metabolism as well as to construct cell factories converting the non-food raw material methanol into products. Another important focus is on construction and use of broad-host range expression tools for Escherichia coli and other Gram-negative bacteria.

Research Themes

• Systems biology
• Synthetic biology
• Genetic engineering
• Recombinant expression