Circular Bioprocesses (cBio)

Our lab's main goal is to metabolically engineer microorganisms to utilize new and environmentally friendly substrates in microbial cultivations while producing added-value compounds for use in the feed, food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries, thereby promoting the circular bioeconomy.

Three students in a laboratory examining a sample — Photo: Per Henning/NTNU

Today, the global population is growing rapidly, driving an increasing demand for food and energy production. This demand is often accompanied by environmental, social, and ethical challenges. To help address these issues, the search for alternative and renewable microbial feedstocks is a key focus.
The Circular Bioprocesses (cBio) research focuses on developing and optimizing metabolic pathways to enhance the efficient utilization of alternative microbial substrates, such as seaweed biomass and industrial side streams. These bioprocesses are studied across various cultivation scales, from microtiter plates to bioreactors. Our main model organism, Corynebacterium glutamicum, is a well-established microbial workhorse used in the industrial-scale production of amino acids.

Three students working together with an experiment in a laboratory — Photo: Per Henning/NTNU

Research Themes

microbial metabolic engineering
synthetic biology
cell-factories
transcriptomics
bioprocesses in bioreactors
bioresources

A group photo of students and researchers in a laboratory — The Circular Bioprocesses group. Photo: Per Henning/NTNU

Experimental activities

Molecular/synthetic biology tools: Diverse molecular and synthetic biology approaches for the implementation and optimization of new metabolic pathways in the microorganism C. glutamicum. Construction and optimization of synthetic operons to fine-tune genetic expression. Utilization of CRISPR tools to fine tune genetic networks.

Analytical procedures: Microbial growth analyses under different conditions and using newly generated C. glutamicum strains. Use of chromatography methods for the detection of compounds (e.g., sugars or amino acids). Enzymatic assays for the characterization of new metabolic pathways. Differential gene expression analyses via transcriptomics.
Bioprocesses: establishment and tuning of processes in lab-scale bioreactors to achieve optimal consumption of the carbohydrates from alternative microbial feedstocks.