Junior Research Group TAILOR

Global warming and a growing world population require the rapid and efficient transformation of our fossil-based economy to a sustainable and resource-efficient bioeconomy. The successful implementation of this transformation depends on biorefineries, which exploit microorganisms as cell-based factories to convert sustainable carbon sources, such as residues from industry, forestry or agriculture, into valuable products. The productivity of these microorganisms defines the efficiency and the economic viability of new bioprocesses.

In the 'TAILOR' project, synthetic biology tools are being developed to make tailormade host organisms for tomorrow's bioeconomy, expanding the range of biobased products and opening up new waste streams as biomass. This will optimize cascade utilization and enable faster, cheaper and more resource-efficient bioproduction.

To this end, we will develop computational models that can predict new synthetic promoter elements in different yeast species. This will allow, on the one hand, the definition of robust promoters of different strengths in divers non-conventional yeasts and, on the other hand, the development of a recombination based promoter engineering approach that allows a straightforward and simultaneous optimization of multiple genes of a biosynthetic pathway in the cell.

Further, optogenetic tools will replace chemical inducers in the production of recombinant proteins by energy- and cost-efficient LEDs. The newly developed light-sensitive transcription factors will further be used as a precise tool to decouple bioproduction from cell growth to optimize product yield. These tools will be used to optimize oleaginous yeasts for the production of "drop-in" biodiesel or to produce proteins relevant to the food industry.