Metabolic Engineering

Metabolic engineering refers to a variety of different methods to optimise the production of valuable target molecules from cheap and simple substrates using microbial production organisms by altering or rearranging the genetic information of the microorganisms. This mainly involves improving metabolic fluxes by, for example, preventing the production of unwanted by-products or optimising critical bottleneck steps along an enzymatic cascade. In addition, we are also establishing new, artificial production pathways in our microbial factories in order to be able to produce completely new products, such as fine chemicals, by fermentation.

Our research is not only focused on optimising conventional laboratory organisms, but also alternative production platforms such as Paenibacillus polymyxa, which can produce interesting products. We use highly efficient, modern tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 to target the genome of these organisms and improve production. In addition, we are also developing new tools to regulate complex metabolic cascades.