Climate change, pollution and depletion of reserves drive the search for alternatives to fossil-based resources. Micro-organisms capable of converting sustainable resources into valuable compounds (microbial cell factories, MCFs) can replace (petro)chemical products and processes, and are critical in the transition to a sustainable society. However, widespread industrial implementation of MCFs is hampered by inefficiency, instability, and complexity of current bioprocesses. Therefore INDUSTRIOPHILE develops a systematic approach to discover and improve traits in MCFs, to make them tolerant to industrial conditionals and capable of efficient production of a broad range of products. The INDUSTROPHILE approach is validated through four industrial showcases.

Sugar and oxygen gradients frequently occur in industrial-scale bioreactors and commonly have a detrimental effect on yield, productivity, and product quality. Reducing or even preventing the occurrence of these gradients is therefore of eminent importance but attempts to realize this by improving the bioreactors have so far only been partially successful. We are proposing a completely new approach to solve this challenge by changing the microorganisms, not the bioreactor.

Microalgae are promising candidates for the sustainable biomanufacturing of chemicals due to their fast photosynthetic growth. Phaeodactylum tricornutum is among the most relevant model species for industrial bioproduction, as it naturally accumulates valuable compounds and can be genetically engineered using synthetic biology to expand its biosynthesis capabilities. However, this genetic engineering is tedious, time-consuming and costly due to the incompatibility of existing technologies with the native DNA repair mechanism of P. tricornutum. Here, we propose Phaeo-CART, a novel tool for targeted gene integration that relies on CRISPR-Cas and a transposase and it is independent from the host’s biological characteristics.

Chit4Value Chitine is na cellulose het meest voorkomende biopolymeer op aarde. Op dit moment wordt slechts een klein deel van deze biomassa (gewonnen uit afval van garnalenpellerijen) gebruikt voor industriële en voedseldoeleinden. Een belangrijke belemmering voor een grootschalige toepassing is het vrijmaken van de bouwstenen waaruit chitine is gevormd. Dit project heeft tot doel methodes te ontwikkelen waarmee chitine op een gecontroleerde en efficiënte manier kan worden afgebroken tot zijn oorspronkelijke bouwstenen die op hun beurt weer geschikt zijn voor verdere verwerking tot biochemicaliën, biobrandstoffen en bioplastics. In samenwerking met: Wageningen Universiteit & Researchcentrum - Agrotechnologie & Voedingswetenschappen Dyadic Nederland bv