38th BioSC Lecture during this year's Jülich Biotech Day 2026

Diana Machado de Sousa, Wageningen University & Research

"Microbial Co-cultures for Broadening the Product Spectrum in CO₂ Fermentation"

November 20, 2026 | 11:30 h - 12:20 h | Central Library, Forschungszentrum Jülich 

Syngas fermentation is a promising approach for converting carbon-rich waste streams and CO-rich industrial gases into valuable chemicals and fuels. To expand the product spectrum beyond conventional outputs like ethanol, multiple complementary strategies are emerging. One option is the genetic engineering of model acetogens to broaden their metabolic capabilities. Alternatively, designing synthetic microbial co-cultures offers routes to access unexplored pathways and new functional synergies.

At our group we design synthetic microbial co-cultures that leverage the synergistic metabolism of acetogens and partner organisms. For example, Clostridium autoethanogenum co-cultivated with Clostridium kluyveri or Anaerotignum neopropionicum enables the production of even- and odd-chain medium-chain carboxylic acids and alcohols. We have also developed hybrid systems combining acetogens with non-sulfur purple phototrophic bacteria to convert CO into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). These synthetic consortia demonstrate the potential to broaden the product range of syngas fermentation.

Diana Machado de Sousa's lecture is part of the program of this year's Jülich Biotech Day on November 20, 2026. Participation is free. However, you have to register yourself here.

37th BioSC Lecture 

Lene Lange, LL-BioEconomy, Research & Advisory, DK

"New knowledge, molecular, microbial and bioinformatics, for more resilient crop plants"

September 23, 2026 | 14:00 h - 15:00 h | Geb. 15.1, Room 249, Forschungszentrum Jülich 

On 23 September 2026, we were pleased to welcome Lene Lange for the 37th BioSC Lecture at Forschungszentrum Jülich. She provided an insightful overview of how the resilience of crops and entire agricultural ecosystems can be improved in the face of rapid environmental changes. Her work spanned a wide range of topics, in particular plant breeding, plant protection, soil improvement, and functional analyses of entire microbiomes, such as those found in soil.

Regarding plant breeding, she welcomed the EU's recent decision that plants bred with new genomic technologies will, under specified conditions, no longer be treated as genetically modified organisms, citing potato late blight as an example how this enables the faster breeding of resistant varieties and a significant reduction in pesticide use. As a new alternative to genomic technologies, she presented FIND-IT, a method recently developed and tested in the Carlsberg Research Laboratory which combines induced mutagenesis with large-scale sample-pooling and droplet digital PCR. This greatly speeds up the identification of desired mutations and development of new crop lines.

The second major topic of the lecture was soil health and improvement. Lene Lange reported on two start-ups in the United States and in Greece that have developed fungal-based products for soil improvement and plant protection which have been proven to increase crop yield. However, the Greek start-up is facing serious problems with commercialization because of EU regulation which she strongly criticized. She then presented CUPP (Conserved Unique Peptide Patterns), a bioinformatics tool she co-developed, that can predict the composition and function of the secretome of entire microbiomes and can help design microbial consortia to restore microbiome health in soils.

The lecture was rounded out by the issues of valorizing crop residues through cascading use and improvement of forage crops. Thank you for an exciting afternoon with detailed insights into a wide range of topics!