Microbial Strain Improvement
and Metabolic Engineering
Institute of Applied Microbiology (IAM)
Department of Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and
Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
(BOKU)
Muthgasse 18 Haus B, A-1190 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: (+43 1)
36006-6569
Fax: (+43 1) 369 76 15
Email: diethard.mattanovich@boku.ac.at
The working group on Microbial Strain Improvement and Metabolic Engineering is mainly focused on the improvement of fungal and bacterial production systems and strains for recombinant proteins and metabolites. A major focus are the requirements the production system must meet for bioprocess technology.
Our work on yeast systems for protein production concentrates on the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. We study the physiological and stress reactions of yeast cell to protein secretion both on a local (single pathways) and global (genomewide) level. Our development of advanced high-throughput methods for flow cytometry and transcriptomics are an important support for our research. Many research results are directly applied to the optimization of production systems, e.g. for complex proteins like proteases and antibodies.
During the last years, our work on recombinant Escherichia coli was focussed on the improvement of the expression level e.g. through optimization of translation signals, and on the adaptation of product formation to the metabolic capacity of the cell, e.g. through a novel induction system. In cooperation with the working group on Flow Cytometry at the IAM, methods for the analysis and sorting of recombinant bacteria have been developed recently.
Metabolic engineering is performed either for the optimization of cellular properties for improved product formation, or for the production of non-protein products like organic acids. Research on lactic acid producing yeast (a cooperation with the University Milano-Bicocca) lead to the development of cell sorting techniques for more acid tolerant yeast strains. While we aim at a better understanding of intracellular pH homeostasis and regulation, we apply our expertise also to the development and optimization of strains for the production of other metabolites.
- EUROCORES Project
Head of Microbial Strain Improvement and Metabolic Engineering:
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Diethard Mattanovich
Rev.1.2 by Siegfried Huss