With the funding commitment of 5.83 million euros from the federal and state governments, the Rhenish mining area can continue on its way to becoming a model region for the bioeconomy. NRW Science Minister Ina Brandes and Dr. Mandy Pastohr, President of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) as the responsible approval authority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection officially launched the project in Merzenich-Bürgewald on February 24, 2025.

Congratulations to the consortium around Nick Wierckx and Benedikt Wynands! Using deep metabolic engineering, guided by laboratory evolution, the consortium has optimized Pseudomonas putida to grow on nylon hydrolysates. This includes the expression of nylonases, explored in collaboration with Kenneth Jensen from Novonesis. The researchers enable the ultimate P. putida NYLON-PHB strain to convert polyamide hydrolysates into eco-friendly polyhydroxybutyrate.
Polyamides like nylon are amazing materials with numerous applications, but their recycling is currently almost non-existent. With the new nylon-eating strain, scientists now have a new option: to replace glucose with plastic waste as a feedstock for biotechnological processes.

The 8th International BioSC Symposium focused on how bio-based solutions can contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Almost 200 participants from science, business and politics spent two exciting days at lectures, panel discussions and poster sessions. Thorsten Menne, Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, opened the symposium and presented in the presence of the namesake the BioSC's Christian Patermann Award 2024 to Benedikt Wynands, Forschungszentrum Jülich, for his outstanding interdisciplinary supervision of doctoral theses on the bioeconomy.

The 33rd BioSC Lecture was a joined lecture from BioSC and JPPC. Prof. Dr. Stefan Schillberg, head of Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular and Applied Ecology IME, Aachen gave a talk at Forschungszentrum Jülich on January 13th, 2025.

This year, BioSC was part of the 22^nd Baesweiler BioTec-Meeting at the Internationales Technologie- und Service-Center Baesweiler GmbH. People from various industries and scientists connected and discussed Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing.

Tobias Erb (MPI, Marburg) talked about CO₂ fixation in synthetic cells and Lutz Schmitt (HHU) elaborated further a method for CO₂ capture with the presentation of the project ACCESS. Andreas Worberg (DTU, Novo Nordisk Foundation) gave an overview of the challenges for start-ups. Furthermore, LenioBio, SenseUP Biotechnology and BRAIN Biotech AG were invited and presented their portfolio. At the end, AgPrime GmbH gave a tour of their lab and climate chambers.

Alain Marty (Carbios) gave a talk with the title “PET recycling: an enzyme and process optimization to an industrial plant” at the Jülich Biotech Day 2024. Carbios uses enzymes to recycle PET waste. The resulting monomers can then be used directly for the production of PET products or textiles without quality loss. The technology will be used in an industrial plant in about two years. As a second example, Alain Marty talked about the biodegradation of PLA in compost and the challenges of finding a suitable enzyme for this process that can be integrated directly into the material.