Bioeconomy Science Center
Research and cooperation for a sustainable bioeconomy
Bioeconomy Science Center
Research and cooperation for a sustainable bioeconomy

BioSC Lectures and „BioSC in Dialogue“ in summer and autumn 2017

During the last months, three BioSC Lectures were given. In the frame of the event series “BioSC in Dialogue”, a lecture for the public was offered for the third time. All lecturers met an interested audience that actively participated in the discussion.

 On 4th August the 18th BioSC Lecture "Inspired by nature - Development of sustainable flavour modifiers" was given by Dr. Jakob Ley, Director of Research and Technology at Symrise AG, at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The market of aromes and flavouring substances has a large potential and is also relevant to bioeconomy. Since the 1950s when vanillin was first used by industry then there has been a continuous and rapid development with regard to various tastes and production methods. In the modern flavour industry, 60% of raw materials are made from natural substances such as plants, animals or bacteria, 30% from crude oil and 10% from other sources. Currently 250-300 new components for flavouring are tested per year. Research on and development of flavouring substances needs broad interdisciplinary approaches. Dr. Ley illustrated this with various examples like the identification and development of bitter suppressors from the plant Yerba santa where in silico, in vitro and sensoric methods are combined.

On 7th September, the 3rd “BioSC in dialogue” event took place, this time in cooperation with “Forschung im Fokus” (“Research in Focus”) at HHU Düsseldorf. Prof. Markus Pauly gave an interactive lecture entitled "Bioeconomy: Plants as Sustainable Raw Materials for Biofuels". He presented the sustainable use of plants as one solution for the global challenges of the 21st century. Plants are able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to store the carbon in other chemically stable forms. Prof. Pauly explained how methods and industrial processes are being developed in the frame of bioeconomy which allow to use plants not only as food or energy source but also as feedstock for the chemical industry, thereby enabling the replacement of fossil resources.

On 28th September the 19th BioSC Lecture with two internationally renowned scientists took place in the frame of the Jülich Biotec Day. Prof. Sang Yup Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Republic of Korea, reported on current trends in systems metabolic engineering for the bio-based production of chemicals. Several production methods could already be established which are now applied in the sectors of health and nutrition (e.g. bacterial production of plant secondary metabolites), energy (fuel production in E. coli) as well as chemistry where recently a nylon-precursor was produced in bacteria which could only be synthesized chemically before. With the so-called „in silico genome-scale metabolic model“ multigenic bacterial strains for various products can be optimized within one week.

In the second lecture, Prof. Francis H. Arnold, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, gave insight to “Innovation by evolution: Bringing new chemistry to life”. Fascinated by evolution, Prof. Arnold has been working for many years on enzyme evolution by means of protein design methods. These methods play an important role in bioeconomy where chemical synthesis pathways are supposed to be replaced by biotechnological ones in favour of the environment. As an example for the natural potential of substrate adaptation she presented the case of Atrazin. This herbicide was considered as non-degradable and it accumulated in soils until, in 1993, a fast enzymatic degradation pathway was discovered. Similarly, the bacterial degradation of plastics can be explained by evolutionary adaptation of the metabolism and its enzymes. Prof. Arnold makes use of this potential by accelerating marginal enzyme activities for desired activities or by creating, selecting and optimizing new activities. The targeted evolution of enzymes holds a manifold potential for the chemical, pharmaceutical, paper, leather and textile industry.