Prof. Wolfgang Wiechert | FZ Jülich | Systems Biotechnology

Research topics and profile (related to bioeconomy)

IBG-1: Biotechnology at Forschungszentrum Jülich is working in the field of Industrial Biotechnology, thus bridging the gap between the supply and processing of sustainable biological ressources, at the one hand, and the production of high valued chemicals, thus replacing classical oil based processes, at the other hand.

Research and development within the topic „Systems Biotechnology“ aims at a deep quantitative understanding of enzymatic reactions and intracellular biochemical networks with a focus at the optimization of industrial production processes. Particularly, the topic is concerned with the development and application of innovative methods for characterizing metabolic networks in whole cells as well as reaction cascades in cell free systems. Special emphasis is laid on quantitative metabolome, fluxome and proteome analysis based on modern mass spectrometric methods and lab robotics. Novel bioanalytical methods are complemented by rapid sampling tools and the application of automated high throughput methods. The obtained data are evaluated in a systems biology framework to obtain multi scale mathe­ma­ti­cal models describing biochemical networks and industrial biopro­cesses. These models, in turn, are used for experimental design and process optimization. To this end specialized simulation and data analysis tools are implemented. Among other facilities the Jülich super computers are exploited for this purpose. As a complementary work in the field of systems biotechnology, single cell investigations by using specially designed microfluidic chips are carried out in order to directly observe intracellular pro­cesses. For this purpose, genetically encoded molecular biosensors are developed in close cooperation with other teams from “Systemic Microbiology” (Prof. Bott) at IBG-1. Concerning the field of biocatalysis the institute is working on industrially relevant en­­­zymes which are quantitatively characterized and modified in a targeted way. Enzyme toolboxes open the way for new multi-step routes to synthesize high valued molecules. Summarizing, all these developments result in a knowledge based targeted development of novel industrial bioprocesses.

Contributions to BioSC

IBG-1: Biotechnology at Forschungszentrum Jülich is working in the field of Industrial Biotechnology, thus bridging the gap between the supply and processing of sustainable biological resources, at the one hand, and the production of high valued chemicals, thus replacing classical oil based processes, at the other hand.

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