acib - THE AUSTRIAN CENTRE OF INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

THE AUSTRIAN CENTRE
OF INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

acib is an international competence centre, developing new, environmentally friendly, economically and technically advanced processes for the biotechnological, pharmaceutical and chemical industry – all of them modelled on nature. acib is bridging the gap between academic research and producing industry. The big advantage for acib partner organisations is the possibility to translate scientific results into concrete processes and products by using scientific know-how, academic infrastructure or industrial networks. Our platform offers tailor-made solutions for our stakeholders from Academia, Industry and Investors.

LATEST BLOG ARTICLES

Fermenting Futures: A recap on “Yeast technology meets art”

Author: Marina Jecmenica (BOKU) The art exhibition “Fermenting Futures” at Künstlerhaus Wien came to an end and it’s time to recap and draw conclusions on the impressions left with the audience. After all, the goal of the event was to emphasize on the importance of yeast in modern biotechnology and highlight on how tightly entangled the history of humankind and this unicellular organism used to be, but most importantly how it continues to be. By the means of “BioArt”, the British artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May showed the aesthetics behind biotechnology and revealed if and how BioArt can play a role for knowledge transfer to the general public.

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Bionanopolys goes Austria!

In early April, acib invited to the Austrian stakeholder event from the Open Innovation Test-Bed (OITB) project Bionanopolys. Acib is a member of this 27 partner strong project consortium, which focuses on the development of bio-based nanomaterials.

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Food for Climate

What does food have to do with climate change? Quite a lot, because as population density increases, so does the demand for food. At the same time, resources are being consumed, posing even greater challenges to our environment and climate. With its “Food 2030” priority, the European Union is pursuing the goal of ensuring innovative research for the future viability of our food system. Within the framework of its research program, acib GmbH already contributes to the development of suitable solutions for sustainable and healthy nutrition. Here are some examples and project ideas from the field of biotechnology:

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CO₂ for proteins – Econutri

What if you could produce something valuable out of the pesky greenhouse gases? What if you could even use them to tackle important global challenges? This is exactly the mission of acib’s spin-off company Econutri. The small company has developed a bioprocess that uses carbon dioxide as a source to produce high quality protein. A crucial part of this process is the microorganism, Cupriavidus necator: it is grown in a gas fermentation process where hydrogen produced from green energy is needed for the microbial transformation of CO₂ into protein.

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Continuous downstream production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, a family of biodegradable plastics

Plastic materials are products of our daily life. Their various properties make them useful in many fields, such as packaging industry. Since the emergence of the Green Chemistry and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) concepts, many scientists have decided to engage in the development of greener chemistry to produce greener plastics. Among these, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a very serious avenue of research.

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Fermenting Futures: The story of yeast – artfully told

Thanks to yeast, we can enjoy beer and bread. But the microscopic fungi can do so much more than just fermentation: Yeast plays a major role in our human evolution, shapes our historical understanding of the past as a bioarchaeological trace on cultural artefacts, and is one of the most important tools of modern biotechnology. Therefore, the renowned artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May are now dedicating their own exhibition to yeast: “Fermenting Futures” will be presented at Künstlerhaus Wien starting March 2nd, 2022.

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“Greenness” and “Sustainability” in biocatalysis.

The terms “sustainability” and “greenness” are omnipresent, whether in advertising for clothing or in project proposals for the funding of academic research. However, “greenwashing” and the careless use of these terms blurs our understanding and turns them into rather abstract concepts that are nonetheless necessary. In the following we will take a closer look at the meaning for biocatalysis and more specifically on the example of the Horizon 2020 funded EU project CARBAFIN.

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Neue Podcast-Folge der “BioteXperten”: Wieviel “bio” steckt in Bioplastik?

Weihnachten naht, und mit den Geschenken droht der Verpackungsmüll wieder Überhand zu nehmen. Nichtsdestotrotz ist Plastik eine der größten Materialinnovationen des letzten Jahrhunderts, und es gibt Plastik sogar in “bio”! Im Rahmen unseres Life is Science Podcasts “Die BioTexperten” unterhalten wir uns mit acib Forscherin Dr. Anita Emmerstorfer-Augustin, die Teil des Teams rund um das EU Projekt BIO-PLASTICS EUROPE ist. Wir klären wichtige Begriffsdefinitionen wie “bio-basiert” oder “bio-abbaubar” und schauen uns an, wo Bio-Plastik heutzutage schon Anwendung findet.

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Probiotic skin care protects against numerous diseases

An intact microbiome protects our skin as a natural shield against external influences. However, if this sensitive system is disturbed, it can lead to serious skin diseases. A Styrian consortium has therefore set itself the goal of developing a natural, medical skin care product. Living bacteria contained in it are strengthening the skin microbiome and warding off pathogens.

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sUstainable PLastIcs for the Food and drink packaging industry – UPLIFT

UPLIFT is a project funded from the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. The overall concept of the project is to boost the development and validation of novel enzymatic and microbial processes for the sustainable use of plastics in food and drinks packaging applications, which will be tested and evaluated from a technical, environmental and socio-economical point of view, thereby contributing to the development of a more circular European plastic packaging industry.

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COMPANY PROFILE AND OWNERS

acib is an industrially oriented private limited company with a non-profit orientation. It is publicly owned by:

THE COMET CENTER acib

Next Generation Bioproduction is funded by BMK, BMDW, SFG, Standortagentur Tirol, Government of Lower Austria und Vienna Business Agency in the framework of COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies. The COMET-Funding Program is managed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG.

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