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 product 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

Gene switch in yeast discovered

Scientists from the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) discovered a gene switch in yeast, that was able to change twelve genes – and thereby the metabolic process of yeast as a whole. This work explains evolutionary events that happened more than 120 million years ago. The results have recently been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications and have the potential to be used in the food and feed industry and for the production of bio fuels and new building blocks for bioplastics.

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Computer aided design of separation processes in pharmaceutical production

Have you ever thought about how drugs are manufactured? They are often produced by microorganisms which secret them into their environment: a soup of media, the target drug and waste that must be eliminated. In the pharmaceutical industry, people use chromatography columns to purify the medication. This process is used for more than a century for the separation of compounds. One may think that everything should be already known for such a well-established process. Yet, acib researchers found out recently that already the connecting tubes and valves affect the quality of the separation process and – in the end – product quality.

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Getting more oxygen into your system – an innovative way of process intensification

More efficiency, more quality, more process safety, less costs, less waste – these are the target specifications of each and every production process in chemical industry. It seems quite ambitious to meet all these requirements, but a new key word has entered the engineering world: process intensification!

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Glycobiology meets chemistry to generate tailor-made offspring

An interdisciplinary team of scientists is pioneering the development of synthetic glycobiology and trains 15 young researchers in the enabling technologies that underpin the development and exploitation of glycoscience: An exciting topic that promises to bring innovative solutions for the future!

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Project proposal writing and some common pitfalls

Research funding is a highly competitive process and only a small fraction of applicants get the grant in the end. EU-Horizon 2020, with almost 80 billion Euros the largest research program worldwide, has an average success rate of only 14%. What is the secret of success of those, who have made it?

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Plant Microbiota and their natural antibiotic resistances

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are not only restricted to clinical environments, nor do they always pose an immediate danger for humans. Various environmental niches are occupied by complex microbial communities that also include members that can carry one or different antibiotic resistances. The plant microbiome often harbors highly competitive microorganisms that can shield of pathogens and contribute to the host’s health. In their latest study researchers from acib-partner TU Graz have focused on antibiotic resistances in a common salad plant and found that the indigenous enterobacterial community contributes to the highly interesting profile.

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Key for citric acid production discovered

The responsible transport gene that allows the production of lemon acid in large quantities was recently discovered. A breakthrough!

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Young scientists and the continuous approach of biotechnological production

Bioproducts for various applications such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutrients or industrial enzymes are manufactured with biotechnological methods; microorganisms or immortalized cell lines are the vehicles for production. Due to the long development times such products, especially in the area of pharmaceuticals, are often very expensive. The question is how can we make the production process of bioproducts faster, cheaper and fit for the future.

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In need of data – paving the way for industry 4.0

What lies behind the data shown on a LCD screen? What do the numbers express and moreover, can we trust them? Is the value displayed correct and can we deduct the right conclusion to set a responsive course of action?

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The 4 letters of Chinese Hamster

Did you know that nowadays bacteria and mammalian cells, especially hamster cells, produce a wide range of drugs? And who tells them to do so? The answer is the four-letter code of DNA. Biotechnologists spend a lot of time to explore natural DNA sequences of different organisms for production. The Chinese Hamster is a mammalian system and suits well for cell factories because of its similarity to human cells. However, for a long time the knowledge about the hamster DNA sequence had many gaps that needed to be investigated.

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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:

K2 RESEARCH CENTRE

acib is funded as a K2 research centre in the framework of FFG COMET funding (Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies) by BMVIT, BMWF, and the provinces of Styria, Vienna, Lower Austria and Tyrol. The COMET programme is processed via FFG. 18 scientific partners are involved in the implementation of the acib COMET programme, which is co-funded by 53 industrial partners.

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