پیاز؛ این بار "بدون اشک"

دانشمندان با استفاده از بیوتکنولوژی پیاز "بدون اشک" تولید کردند

به گزارش خبرگزاری فرانسه پژوهشگران ژاپنی و نیوزیلندی با کاربرد بیوتکنولوژی برای خاموش کردن ژنی که سازنده آنزیم تولید‌کننده رایحه اشک‌آور پیاز توانستند پیازهایی را تولید کنند که چشم‌ها را تحریک نکند.

این کشف پیام‌‌‌آور پایان یکی از معماهای قدیمی آشپزی است: چرا بریدن یک پیاز ساده باعث به سوزش چشم‌ها و سرازیرشدن اشک می‌شود.

موسسه پژوهشی غذا و محصولات کشاورزی در نیوزیلند با استفاده از تکنولوژی "خاموش کردن ژن" به این موفقیت دست یافتند که امیدوارند در طول یک دهه آینده به وارد شدن پیاز بدون اشک به بازار بینجامد.

به گفته کالین ایدی، دانشمند ارشد دراین موسسه، این طرح در سال 2002 پس از آن آغاز شد که دانشمندان ژاپنی ژن مسئول تولید عامل اشک‌آور پیاز را مکان‌یابی کردند.

او افزود: "ما قبلا فکر می‌کردیم که ماده اشک‌آور پیاز به طور خودبخودب هنگام بریدن آن تولید می‌شود، اما آنها ثابت کردن که تولید این ماده بوسیله یک آنزیم کنترل می‌شود.

"ما در اینجا در نیوزلند با استفاده از تکنولوژی خاموش‌سازی ژن که بوسیله دانشمندان استرالیایی ایجاد شده است، این توانایی را داشتیک که یک قطعه DNA به درون ژنوم پیاز وارد کنیم."

"این تکنولوژی توالی در ژنوم ایجاد می‌کند که ژن تولیدکننده آنزیم اشک‌آور را خاموش می‌کند و در نتیجه این آنزیم دیگر تولید نمی‌شود. بنابراین هنگامی پیاز را می‌برید، دیگر اشک‌ نمی‌ریزد."

ایدی گفت با جلوگیری از تبدیل ترکیبات گوگرد در پیاز به ماده‌ اشک‌آور و هدایت آنها به سوی بدل‌شدن به ترکیبات مسئول رایحه و سلامت‌بخشی این فرآیند حتی می‌تواند مزه پیاز را هم بهبود بخشد.

او افزود: "ما امیدواریم پیازهایی پرورش دهیم که رایحه‌ای مطبوع بدون آن عامل تند و اشک‌آور داشته باشند."

 البته به گفته ایدی ممکن است 10 تا 15 سال تا تحقق یافتن این آرزو  طول بکشد.

Heat produced by the forest itself

Every year around 1.2 million people visit Mainau, the Flower Island, on Lake Constance. What few of them know: nature reigns behind closed doors here as well. The island produces its own environmentally friendly heating by using wood chips instead of oil.

As oil prices rise and rise, Mainau forester Theo Straub feels more and more vindicated - Straub is in charge of wood-produced energy on the island. Ten years ago, there were 19 oil-fired boilers at 16 locations on Mainau. Tankers brought oil over the bridge, crossing Lake Constance and driving through a conservation area.

At the beginning the oil dealers laughed

"We were laughed at by the oil suppliers when we were considering converting to wood", recalls Mainau forester Theo Straub. (Photo: van Bebber)

The aristocratic family and Mainau GmbH decided at that time not to replace the boilers and to bring their energy concept in line with environmental protection. In 1961, Mainau adopted the "Green Charter" – the first and still current environmental manifesto in Germany. The tourist island, ever mindful of its financial costs, thus announced its intention to try and become self-sufficient in terms of energy supply.

The launch was controversial, particularly on the mainland. "We were laughed at by the oil suppliers in the beginning ", says Straub. This mockery was particularly directed at the higher expenditures that would be necessary for the planned mix of combined heat and power stations, fed with natural gas, and a wood-chip heating system. Replacement oil-fired boilers would have cost 2.5 million Deutschmarks, instead of which Mainau invested a whopping five million Deutschmarks. And at that time fuel oil was still clearly cheaper than wood.

The money remains in the regional economy

From autumn to spring 40 percent of the necessary warmth comes from wood chips. (Photo: van Bebber)

But Straub just laughs. Today everyone is talking about exploding oil prices. Instead of counting in litres, today Straub counts in cubic meters: the quantity of the small pellets of chopped wood. A cubic meter costs approximately twelve euros and is stored in the silo on Mainau. It replaces 80 to 85 litres of fuel oil. Further advantages are that the money stays in the region instead of flowing out to the international oil companies, there are no tankers crossing the bridge over the freshwater reservoir Lake Constance, and the environmental balance of the island has been greatly improved.

In the beginning, however, success was not guaranteed, even though the region and the German Environment Foundation worked to promote the project. There were hardly any wood-chip plants on a similar scale. "It was pioneering work", says Straub. When the plant started up in 1997, Straub had to operate it manually throughout the day and night. Today it is fully automatic. The wood power station runs from October through to April when the heating needs on the island are greatest. The palm tree and butterfly houses are major users. Local power stations working on natural gas deliver the main supply of electricity. But from autumn to spring, 40 percent of the heat needed comes from wood chips. Forester Straub burns 1,400 cubic meters of wood during this period.

From ash to fertilizer

A cubic meter replaces 80 to 85 litres of fuel oil. (Photo: van Bebber)

The wood originates from the Mainau forests on the mainland, from the greenery cut on the island, or from other suppliers. Straub can use wood for this purpose that could not be sold on the wood market. One positive side effect: Straub has fewer problems than before with the bark beetle since there isn’t as much wood in the forest these days. When trees had to be cut down in Constance to make way for a by-pass, the construction companies were delighted to find a customer for the wood. "In some cases we are even paid to go and collect the wood,” says Straub.

The wood arrives on Mainau from a machine that has chopped it into tiny pieces. It burns at 850 degrees and heats water. The heat is transported over the island through a 2.3-km-long pipe. At the moment, the leftover ash still goes to the dump, but Straub plans to upgrade the plant so that the system will be able to separate the combustion chamber ash from the smoke filter ash. The filter residue contains large amounts of heavy metal because trees store environmental pollutants. However, the remaining ash is an outstanding fertilizer – and it returns to where the energy came from: the forests, meadows and gardens of Mainau, the Flower Island.

fvb – May 2006
© BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH

Information about wood energy
Mainau’s experiences have become part of wood energy project quality management. Several states in the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland and Austria have information about wood power stations (Internet: www.qmholzheizwerke.de). For the past few years now, the wood energy forum has regularly taken place on Mainau where wood power station suppliers are able to present their products and give advice to those who are interested. The next event will take place October 20-22, 2006.

No Competition for milk and bread

A study by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has proven that biomass energy sources are gaining in significance. At the same time, growing conflicts of use could be diminished by new biofuels.

Biomass will continue to become more and more significant as Germany’s number one regenerative source of energy. At the same time, the competition between energy producers and food producers over the use of agricultural and forestry land is intensifying. New biomass energy sources point to a way out of this conflict as they use straw and logging remains. These are the main results of a recently published study by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) funded by Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry for Nutrition and Rural Areas. The KIT is a cooperation between the Karlsruhe Research Centre and the University of Karlsruhe.

Straw – a seminal energy source even for fuel production (Photo: KIT)

“Yet this will also create a controversy as to whether our fields should be used for the production of food or energy plants,” says Dr. Ludwig Leible (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of the Karlsruhe Research Centre), senior researcher of the study. This politically sensitive issue affecting both ethics and consumers could be partly offset by so-called second-generation biofuels. The great advantage of second-generation biofuels is that they do not compete with bread and milk.

The novel, fully synthetic biofuels will be produced from straw and logging remains - as opposed to biofuels that are produced from rapeseed or bioethanol that is produced from maize. These materials are not suitable either as foodstuff nor do they require additional cultivable land. In addition, second-generation biofuels are purer, ecologically safer and more adaptable (for example, they comply with more stringent CO2 limits) than petroleum fuel. Project leader Ludwig Leible: “The new biofuels will strengthen our non-dependency on petroleum and help us lower the CO2 emissions from road traffic according to the objectives set by the EU, without transforming our fields into fuelling stations”.

Diesel from straw and logging remains

bioliq® pilot plant at the Karlsruhe Research Centre (Photo: KIT)

With regard to the competitiveness of biofuels, the economic “break even” has not yet been reached, according to the calculations of KIT scientists. But it is within reach: If an efficient gathering and distribution of the biomass can be assured, it would already be possible to produce diesel from straw and logging remains for about 1 euro per litre. With petroleum costing 130 US$ per barrel (current price: 78 US$), this type of fuel would be able to compete with traditional diesel – even without subsidies such as petroleum tax exemptions.

In the conclusion to their research, KIT scientists advocate the development of innovative technologies for fuel production from biomass. This would include the bioliq® process developed at the Karlsruhe Research Centre. According to Ludwig Leible “bioliq® offers the additional advantage of dual use. As the need arises, biomass can either be processed as fuel or as important basic chemical materials such as methanol”. The bioliq® process is currently being prepared at the KIT Energy Centre for market introduction.

Source: Justus Hartlieb, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) - 19.09.07

Bioenergy - the rising star among renewable resources

Who could have imagined bioenergy rather than wind bioenergy supplying more than 50% of all energy produced from renewable resources? Statistics show that the proportion of wind, water, solar energy, biomass and soil heat is constantly growing. Estimates for 2005 show that 6.4 percent of all energy production comes from renewable sources; in 1998, the comparable proportion was as low as 3.1 percent.

Available renewable energy sources (Figure: BEE)

Mineral oils, natural gas, black and brown coal and nuclear energy are still the principal resources that satisfy our hunger for energy. Funding programmes, quota and political specifications have so far been unable to overturn this David and Goliath relationship between sources of energy. However, the enormous costs of fossil energy are gradually making renewable energies economically viable resources.

A sign of the growing significance of renewable energies is the fact that they are now also very much part of the industrial, political and employment agendas. The driving force behind the growing demand for renewable energies is the Renewable Energy Law (electrical energy market), the new EU guideline on biofuels and the Regenerative Heat Law (heat market), which the Federal Ministry of Environment Ministry intends to discuss soon.

Bio - a broad field

The term ‘bioenergy’ has come to be used as a collective term referring to all kinds of energies produced from solid, fluid or gaseous biomass. According to the FNR’s (Agency of Renewable Resources - project management organisation of the Federal Ministry for Agriculture) definition, biomass is all organic substance produced or originating from plants or animals. Experts group energy that is produced from biomass into renewable resources, energy plants and organic waste.

Germany supports renewable resources: More than 1.4 hectares (=12%) of the entire agricultural area are used to grow industrial and energy plants (Figure: Agency of Renewable Resources, FNR)

Renewable materials include fast-growing tree species (such as poplars), certain annual energy plants, sugar- and starch-containing field fruit used to make ethanol as well as oil fruit such as rape, which is used for the production of fuel (biodiesel). The extended definition of bioenergy to eventually include organic waste from agriculture and forestry, industry and private households, is set to influence the statistical information in a big way. Organic waste will then include waste and residual wood, straw, grass, leaves, manure as well as sewage sludge and organic domestic waste.

Solar energy that is already stored

Bioenergy is no more than stored solar energy that is converted by photosynthetic plants into organic matter. In contrast to other renewable resources, plants can be seen as the natural storage medium of solar energy. Different technologies and methods are used to convert biomass, depending on the type of energy required and the purpose to which it is put. The classical process is the production of heat from wood that is cut into small pieces, pressed into pellets and burnt. This technology, which is also used in large-scale energy production, is primarily used for the small-scale production of heat although it can also be used for the production of electricity.

Purification to precede utilisation

Solid organic fuels are converted into solid, fluid or gaseous secondary energies in thermochemical, physicochemical and biochemical processes. Although a considerable amount of research is devoted to pyrolysis technology (liquefaction of biomass or BtL (biomass to liquid)), it is – according to expert opinion – still at the research and development stage. Numerous research institutions are currently developing different research and pilot technologies.

A biogenic, fluid energy source with a relative high-energy density can be transported easily and universally used. Suitable raw materials include wood-like fuels, straw or energy crops. Following gasification, fluid fuel is synthesised from the gas produced. The development of such designer fuels also involves partners from the mineral oil industry and car manufacturers. There is one particular German company that hopes to be able to produce 1 million tons of bioenergy per year by 2010.

Experts regard the gasification of biomass as a sustainable process for the production of electrical power. Nevertheless, the production of fuel gas is associated with numerous problems such as the problems of purification. Oil and fat extracted from rape or sunflower seeds can also be used for the production of bioenergy. Purified oil can be used as fuel in specific engines or for the production of heat and power (combined heat and power plant). Currently, these oils play a subordinate role (0.15 million tons in 2005). The use of fuels produced by the esterification of oils that can be used similarly to fossil diesel fuel is more common. The best-known example of this type of fuel is biodiesel (1.7 million tons in 2005).

Biogas is a true multi-talent

Biogas, a methane-containing gas mixture that is generated during the anaerobic degradation of organic substances, is becoming increasingly popular, thanks to the Renewable Energy Law. The gas, i.e. the methane contained therein, can be processed and used in gas burners or engines. Although the large-scale process engineering technology (in the case of gas from purification plants) has been established, problems are still encountered in the use of the heat produced. Potential applications are seen in its use as fuel. The major proportion of biogas activities in Germany is concentrated in Southern Germany.

High fuel prices have once again brought bioethanol (0.2 million t/2005) to our attention. According to information from FAO experts, agricultural ethanol made from sugar cane can compete with a crude oil price of 35 US $ per barrel. For cost efficiency reasons, biofuel is mainly produced in Latin America. In Europe, in particular in Sweden and France, but also in Germany, increasing efforts are being made to mix ethanol with regular fuels or to offer ethanol (E85) as an alternative for use with standard petrol engines, which is a major objective of Crop Energies (subsidiary of Südzucker). Experts also attest methanol’s growing importance, as it is the simplest of all alcohol fuels. It can be produced by gasification from dry biomass and used in petrol engines and fuel cells.

wp - 22.05.2006

Bioenergy - energy produced from renewable resources

The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology envisages that in the year 2020 twenty percent of all chemicals, materials and fuels will be produced from renewable resources. The Institute sets great store on biorefineries. “Biorefineries” refer to an integrated overall concept for the biochemical and thermochemical conversion of renewable resources. The bioenergy sector in general is very broad and covers the production of gas, electricity, heat and fuels. Enzymes play an important role in the use of renewable raw materials because they cause the raw materials to decompose and prepare them for further processing. Biotechnology therefore plays an important role in enzyme optimisation.

The idea of manufacturing an entire car from plant resources sounds like science fiction. Nonetheless, Henry Ford developed promising concepts as early as 1941: he suggested combining cellulose, soybean flour and formaldehyde resin to produce plastics that could be used as bodywork and interior lining of his car. Ford also envisaged the use of methanol produced from hemp.

Science Fiction or reality?

Baden-Württemberg already has a project that has moved beyond the domain of science fiction: Baden-Württemberg scientists have developed a fuel cell for use in the human body. Such fuel cells can supply implants like cardiac pacemakers with the energy they need to operate. The cells rely purely on oxygen and glucose, which are available in sufficient amounts in human body fluids.

(Photo: SIEMENS AG)

Baden-Württemberg relies on biomass

The use of biomass as an energy source can make a considerable contribution to the type of energy that will be used in the future. The attractiveness of using biomass in Germany is on the increase thanks to the country’s renewable energy legislation. Minister of the Environment Tanja Gönner estimates that the proportion of biofuels used in Baden-Württemberg rose from 2.1 percent in 2004 to more than 3 percent in 2005.

There are different ways of turning biomass into energy: wood is burned in power plants to produce heat; maize straw – currently a very popular energy source – is fermented in biogas plants and then transformed into electricity and heat. It can also be processed into synthesis gas.

It is possible to run cars with plant oil, biodiesel or bioalcohol once the combustion engines have been adapted for use with biofuels. Plants with a high cellulose or sugar content have proved particularly useful. Rape is the basis for biodiesel production.

Renewable energy – a central topic

An effective strategy for sustainable energy supply must encompass three objectives: environmental compatibility, economic efficiency and security of supply. Renewable energy means sustainability and technological innovation. The Baden-Württemberg government has set itself the goal of doubling the proportion of renewable energy used in Baden-Württemberg by 2010. Investment in this field amounted to a total of 189 million euros between 1991 and 2004.

In Baden-Württemberg, bioenergy contributes approximately 1 percent of the total demand for primary energy in Baden-Württemberg. The following biomass types are used as energy sources: wood, plant oil and biodiesel, gas from putrefaction plants and other biogases.

Current research projects in Baden-Württemberg include the Karlsruhe Research Centre, which is investigating a process in which the rapid pyrolysis of wood or straw leads to a tar/coke condensate that is easy to transport. In December 2004, the Institute of Agricultural Technology at the University of Hohenheim put a new biogas laboratory into operation.

(Bio)hydrogen - an energy source of the future?

Hydrogen has become very popular as an energy carrier in the field of solar technology or as an environmentally friendly fuel for running cars and planes as well as block heat and power plants. Biotechnology is involved in the biological production of hydrogen gas. Hydrogen is produced by autotrophic microorganisms which get their energy from converting solar energy into chemical energy. Algae and cyanobacteria are among the most important plant solar collectors. Biohydrogen thus has the potential to be an effective and environmentally friendly energy source.

Glycobiotechnology

Glycobiotechnology - Sugar research is picking up speed

Alongside DNA and proteins, sugar structures play an important role in cellular transport and communication processes. They are also part of the molecular control and regulation machinery making them of particular interest to biotechnologists. The pharmaceutical industry, as well as the food sector and material sciences, have realised the potential of sugar structures.

The era of sugar research is dawning; in fact, it has already begun. Approximately ten to fifteen years ago, life scientists started to rethink the role of sugar structures. Better analytical methods and a growing and deeper understanding of cellular mechanisms revealed that sugar structures had far more biological functions than previously thought. As a result, sugar research has received greater attention in recent years. In 2003, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rated glycobiotechnology as one of the top ten technologies of the future.

Both basic and applied research are being carried out in Germany in order to turn glycobiology and glycobiotechnology into a field of excellence for German research and to become a world leader in this field. Following the “Glycobiotechnology Funding Priority”, the BMBF launched the “Glycobiotechnology Workgroup Contest” in 2006 in order to establish this area of research in Germany.

Cellular sugar structures are the models for new materials and surfaces

Saccharose (Photo: Takeda Pharma)

Baden-Württemberg has excellent researchers and projects in the field of glycobiology. One of the major priorities is an investigation into the cells' sugar coat. A workgroup, headed by Dr. Ralf Richter at the Stuttgart Max Planck Institute, is investigating and developing models of the cells' sugar coat. The researchers are hoping to gain insights into structure-function relationships and develop the system into a new biosensoric platform (see article entitled "How do cells work? Glycoconjugate cell coat models provide new answers").

The knowledge of sugars and their binding partners is essential for the development of innovative biomaterials. This concerns implants, prostheses and, in general, all materials that interact with biological systems. Sugar-binding proteins, the lectins, are the focus of many research activities. For example, Prof. Dr. Wittmann of the University of Constance carries out research on the multivalent recognition and differentiation of galactose-binding lectins through surface-bound neoglycopeptides (see article entitled: “How cells communicate. Constance chemists are investigating carbohydrate-protein interactions”).

Binding behaviour offers new perspectives for diagnosis and therapy

A natural killer cell (Photo: Prof. Dr. Rupert Handgretinger)

The specific binding of lectins to sugar structures is also a key process for medicine in which it is hoped that further insights into this process will lead to completely new therapies. Dr. Ingo Müller’s research team at the University of Tübingen is working on the specific sugar coat of cancer cells and is investigating how the sugars interact with the surface lectins of immune system cells (see article entitled "Cancer cells: glycosylation pattern as potential target for intervention").

The principle of specific bindings between sugars and proteins is also used in biotechnological drug production. Intensive research is devoted to developing new and optimised cell systems that enable the binding of sugars to therapeutic molecules. Freiburg-based greenovation Biotech GmbH is one such example. The company uses moss plants to develop therapeutic proteins that are combined with human sugar structures so that the target cells in the human body are able to recognise the therapeutic proteins.

In 1985, Boehringer Ingelheim’s first biopharmaceutical, Actilyse, was a glycoprotein. Dr. Michael Schlüter, who has been involved in this field since the beginning, is the head of a department that has grown considerably over the years - as has the production of biopharmaceuticals in Biberach, Germany.

Food with bioactive sugar compounds

Fucus species are also suitable as suppliers of algal polysaccharides. (Photo: Anoxymer GmbH)

Esslingen-based Anoxymer GmbH, has taken a different route, though it is also based on plants. The company investigates the health benefits of plant-derived sugar structures that are consumed with the food we eat. It develops extracts enriched with bioactive polysaccharides. The article “More than just empty calories – polysaccharides in food” deals with the therapeutic and preventive benefits of sugars.

All glycobiological and glycobiotechnological questions have something in common: the research on these highly-complex sugar molecules is always associated with large amounts of data. These data have to be compiled, administered and processed. Computer-assisted simulations and modeling in the field of glycobiology can only be dealt with using modern bioinformatics methods due to particularly complex relationships. Dr. Claus-Wilhelm von der Lieth of the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg was a pioneer of glycobioinformatics. His activities are dealt with in the article entitled “Glycobiotechnology: breakthrough for glycomics”.

What is glycobio(techno)logy?

Complex sugar compounds are known as glycans. The word is derived from Greek glykós, which means ‘sweet’. Glycans consist of individual sugar components (monomers) such as glucose or fructose that are combined to form polymers. These chains can be very long, be branched or be connected with other molecules such as lipids or proteins. This leads to a complexity that is far greater than that of pure nucleic acids and proteins. Three sugar monomers are sufficient to produce more than 27,000 different structures. This also leads to a huge variety of functions: Glycans are important for the communication between cells or between cells and their molecular environment; they are also important for tissue structure and the storing of information.

The terms proteome or genome refer to all proteins or genes of an organism. Similarly, glycome is the entire complement of sugars. Glycomics is often used synonymously with the term glycobiology.

Glycobiology is the study of the structure and function of saccharides (sugar chains or glycans); glycobiotechnology focuses on their practical use. In medicine, cell- and disease-specific glycans can serve as diagnostic markers or as targets for drug therapies. In addition, sugar chains play an increasing role in biopharmaceuticals, in which they can affect stability, activity and immunogenicity of drugs. Glycans have also given new ideas to material scientists, where they can serve as a model for the development of new biomaterials such as scaffolds for the cultivation of artificial tissue (tissue engineering). Last but not least, as food additives, sugars can also have a beneficial effect on human health.

leh - 01.02.2008
© BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH

Bioprocess engineering

The inclusion of biological processes in production processes has huge potential for industry. Bioprocess engineering helps to produce materials more efficiently than ever before; at the same time it opens up ways to new and often better products.

Over the last century, science has diversified considerably. The immense increase in knowledge has led to continuing specialisation and the development of new, even more specific scientific areas. It seems that this is the only way to cope with the huge amount of progress made. The universal scholar has become a dying breed and the representatives of the individual disciplines have become so different from each other that they are unable to communicate in a common language.

At present, this situation seems to be undergoing a reversal, at least to some extent. Bioprocess engineering, involving the natural sciences and the engineering sciences, is a particularly successful example of two different scientific areas coming closer together. Baden-Württemberg is at the forefront of this development. In this German state, process engineering has always had a high industrial and academic profile and is surrounded by a highly dynamic biotech scene. Openness, curiosity and the readiness to learn from each other brings the stakeholders together and is the prerequisite for innovative developments.

A marriage of convenience

Bioprocess engineering remains deeply ingrained in the two original disciplines. On the one hand, it is part of biotechnology since it involves methods of microbiology, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology as well as genetics to use living cells in technical processes and industrial production. On the other hand, it is also part of process engineering as it deals with the application of chemical and mechanical processes for converting and treating substances in biotechnological processes as well as with the development, planning, construction and operation of technical plants that are required for doing so.

The enormous and continuously growing importance of bioprocess engineering is also reflected by the work of big institutions. In Stuttgart alone, there are two institutions that focus on bioprocess engineering. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, research results are directly transferred into economically sustainable products. The liver reactor for pharmaceutical substance tests is one example. The article “Practical report: the combination of biology and process engineering” focuses on how two disciplines have grown together.

Wasserstoffproduzenten: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

At the Institute for Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Stuttgart, the scientific teams are dealing with the whole range of biochemical engineering to design, analyse and optimise the production of substances in bioreactors and cell cultures. Systems biology is an important driver of bioprocess engineering. The University of Karlsruhe also focuses on bioprocess engineering. Florian Lehr is working on a production method that will enable the algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to produce hydrogen on a large scale. A 3-litre-laboratory bioreactor is already available and provides the data that are required for the subsequent development of larger reactors. A 30-litre reactor will be set up in 2008 and the first 250-litre reactor is planned for 2010 (see article entitled “Economical hydrogen production: small algae – big expectations”).

Virtual cells help to optimise biobased production methods

Insilico Biotechnology is simulating high-performance strains on the computer. (Photo: Insilico Biotechnology)

An important prerequisite for the successful application of bioprocess engineering is the computer-assisted simulation and modelling of organism metabolisms that are to be included in production processes. Instead of using the classical “trial and error” principle, simulations are a far quicker and more cost-efficient method for assessing the effects of specific metabolic manipulations on the production of the desired substance (see article entitled “Insilico is designing Formula-One type bacteria”).

The classical chemical industry also uses bioprocess engineering, for example for the production of enzymes. The production of monomers and polymers for the processing industry is an important field of the future. Bioproduction represents an ecological as well as increasingly economically interesting alternative to petrochemistry. Another field of application has developed in the industrialisation of food production. Big companies have an own process development department that uses biological systems to produce aromas and flavour enhancers such as the amino acid glutamate as well as valuable food additives (see article entitled “Tasting for research”).

leh - 28.03.2008
© BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH