COMET AREAS
AREA 1
BIOCATALYSIS AND ENZYME TECHNOLOGY
Medical agents, active ingredients of detergents, cosmetics, color pigments or polymers – all depend on chemical syntheses. Most chemical reactions require a high energy input and ecologically harmful organic solvents. The result of many chemical reactions is a mixture of products from which the desired substance must be separated sophisticatedly. About 90 % of all chemical processes are carried out using a type of catalysis. Here, biocatalysis comes into play – as biocatalysts, enzymes transform chemical syntheses into more ecological and economic processes.
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AREA 2
POLYMER- & ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
Polymers are ubiquitous in our world – in clothings, as plastics in cars, in electronic goods, packages and much more. Most polymers and plastics are currently secondary products of the petroleum industry. Dwindling resources and problems with not satisfying recycling methods make it necessary to think of alternatives.
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AREA 3
SYSTEMS BIOLOGY & MICROBIAL CELL ENGINEERING
Microorganisms are essential for many industrial sectors. They are sophisticated factories in micro-format, which are able to perfectly produce pharmaceutical drugs, enzymes for the chemical, pharmaceutical, agrochemical or food industries or a variety of highly valuable chemicals. This requires the use of biotechnological methods. The characterization of production cells is as necessary as cell design, the systematic development of possible production lines or as finding ideal growth conditions which are all major research fields of acib.
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AREA 4
BIOPROSPECTING & SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
An essential feature of our nature is its enormous biodiversity. Among the countless biomolecules enzymes protrude out yet. As biocatalysts they control all vital processes and solve specific tasks perfectly; similar to highly specialized tools. Microorganisms are specialists, too, and can achieve amazing things through interaction with various cell types. For example certain microbial communities support plants during growth or in the defense of pests.
Using bioprospecting, acib filters out the knowledge about benefits of biological systems that were developed by nature. Based on this, acib researchers define which basic requirements must be met in order to realize a biotechnological process. Finally acib uses new biological systems for environmentally friendly practices.
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AREA 5
BIOPROZESS ENGINEERING
The development of a biotechnological production process is a complex procedure. The establishment of a process in small laboratory scale with a few grams of product is followed by its “upscaling” to an industrial scale of several 100 liters of fermentation medium. “Upscaling” and product purification are not only two of the major challenges of industrial biotechnology but also research priorities at acib.
In the end the industry needs a product of high-purity in order to use it, for example, as a pharmaceutical compound. The result of the fermentation, however, is a mixture of nutrients, microorganisms and hundreds of substances produced in the fermentation. The desired product must be isolated from all other substances.
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AREA 6
ANIMAL CELL TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
Compared to other pharmaceuticals, therapeutic proteins saw an incredible growth rate over the last years. The scientific community and also industry still experience a great enthusiasm and an atmosphere of “gold rush” and innovation. Nevertheless, the development of both cell lines and processes is still mostly based on empirical trial and error methods. The mechanistic details of how a cell is able to handle high production rates of a foreign protein have not received the same attention and optimization within industry.
Therapeutic proteins are mostly produced in Chinese hamster ovary cells, as these CHO cells are able to synthesize proteins similar to those in humans.
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