Consortium
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (CHA)
Berlin, Germany
Higher education establishment
The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is Europe’s largest university hospital. It hosts over 25,000 people and its complex is spread over four campuses, including the CharitéCrossOver, a multidisciplinary center for pre-clinical sciences like Biochemistry, Biophysics, Physiology, and Neurosciences.
Team
- Steffen Lindner — Coordinator
- Leonard Westphal
- Laura Jane Przybyl
- Naci Can Çalışkan
The Lindlich Lab at CHA works on the microbial foundation for a sustainable bioeconomy. The team designs and engineers metabolic pathways towards increased bioproduction and efficient carbon feedstock utilization. The group focuses on C1 utilization pathways and develops solutions for growth-coupled bioproduction.
CHA coordinates the project and leads the engineering of the E. coli platform strain, combining methanol oxidation, formaldehyde assimilation and obligate fermentation. CHA also contributes strain input to the bioprocess scale-up work and model-validation data to the computational design work.
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPI)
Magdeburg, Germany
Research organisation
The Max Planck Society is Germany’s leading basic-research organisation, running over 80 institutes across the natural, life, and social sciences. The specific institute in this project, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, was founded in 1996 as the Max Planck Society’s first institute dedicated to engineering sciences, bridging basic research and industrial application in process, chemical, biochemical and energy systems.
Team
- Steffen Klamt
- Ava Jahad Mohammadi
- Jasmin Bauer
The Analysis and Redesign of Biological Networks group develops theoretical methods for systems and computational biology combined with experimental investigation, with a central focus on mathematical modelling of metabolic networks and genetic design of cell factories. The group develops and maintains two software packages, CellNetAnalyzer and CNApy, for computer-aided design of biological networks.
MPI leads the computational modelling for strain and process design, calculating strain-design strategies that enforce growth-product coupling for methanol conversion, and ranking additional candidate target chemicals beyond the three core products. MPI also provides in silico strain design and metabolic modelling input to.
Universiteit Leiden (ULEI)
Leiden, Netherlands
Higher education establishment
Leiden University is the oldest university in the Netherlands (founded 1575). Biology research at Leiden traces back to the university’s founding and today sits within the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), part of the Faculty of Science, covering molecular biology, microbiology, synthetic biology and biotechnology, and biochemistry, among other disciplines.
Team
- Lennart Schada von Borzyskowski
- Meredith Purchal
The Natural and Synthetic Microbial Biochemistry group (SvB lab) works on strain and enzyme engineering for microbial bioproduction from C1 substrates, combining enzyme biochemistry, metabolic engineering, and bioinformatics. The group has previously engineered chassis organisms for improved growth on CO2 and methanol and enzymes for the first synthetic CO2-fixation pathway.
ULEI leads the engineering of an efficient PQQ-dependent methanol dehydrogenase for P. putida and supports enzyme engineering across both strain-development work packages. In particular, in vivo selection and reverse-engineering work to identify enzymatic bottlenecks in E. coli, and structure-guided enzyme optimisation in P. putida.
Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)
Paris, France
Research organisation
CEA is a French government-funded research organisation working across energy (nuclear and renewable), defense and security, information technologies, and health technologies, with over 20,000 employees across nine centers in France. The CarboNcare team sits within Genoscope, CEA’s national center for genome sequencing, part of the Institut de Biologie François Jacob within CEA’s fundamental research division.
Team
- Madeleine Bouzon
- Volker Döring
At CEA, Genoscope (the national center for genome sequencing) brings years of expertise in cell biology, microbiology, and biochemistry. The team, part of the Institut de Biologie François Jacob, specialises in postgenomic research, metabolomics, and biocatalysis.
CEA applies adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) throughout the strain-engineering work packages, incrementally selecting for improved methanol oxidation, methylotrophic growth, and growth-coupled production in both E. coli and P. putida. CEA also contributes genome, transcriptome and proteome analysis to identify beneficial mutations and enzymatic bottlenecks arising from ALE.
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)
Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Higher education establishment
DTU is Denmark’s technical university. It includes the The Novo Nordisk Foundation Biotechnology Research Institute for the Green Transition (BRIGHT), established in 2011, which develops methods and technologies for large-scale, sustainable production of chemicals, natural products and microbial foods using engineered cell factories.
Team
- Pablo Iván Nikel
- Òscar Puiggené González
- Bautista Buralli
At DTU Biosustain, the Systems Environmental Microbiology group focuses on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of environmental bacteria for whole-cell biocatalysis and cell-factory development. The group is establishing new-to-Nature chemistries in bacterial cell factories and has extensive experience in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology of Pseudomonas species.
DTU leads the engineering of the P. putida platform strain and supplies both engineered strains to the bioprocess scale-up work.
IN SRL (INsociety)
Udine, Italy
SME (Private, for-profit)
IN SRL is an Italian innovation-strategy firm, founded in 2008, that studies and analyses the societal, environmental and economic impact of innovation, and supports research teams and individuals in maximising it—combining quantitative impact-assessment methods with science communication expertise across a Europe-wide partner network.
Team
- Laura Martinelli
- Maryem Fateh
- Linda Costantini
- Michela Candotti
- Diogo Matias
The company has over 15 years of experience in innovation strategy, deep-tech valorisation and EU project leadership. It collaborates with experts in LCA, bioeconomy and circular systems, previously at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
IN leads communication activities and stakeholder-mapping/dissemination planning, and leads the life-cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic assessment (TEA) of the project’s value chains (with contribution from DECHEMA). IN also assists internal project communication and leads quality and risk management.
DECHMA –Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie (DECHEMA)
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Research organisation
DECHEMA is a non-profit expert network for chemical engineering and biotechnology, founded in 1926 and based in Frankfurt. It represents these fields across science, industry, politics and the public, and organises ACHEMA, the world’s leading trade fair for the process industries, held every three years in Frankfurt.
Team
- Christina Andreeßen
- Jochen Michels
DECHMA’s brings its know-how in assessing CCU and biotechnology, evaluating markets, building roadmaps, and has advised numerous start-ups.
DECHEMA leads stakeholder engagement, dissemination and exploitation activities—including business modelling, IP-management strategy, and development of the CarboNcare commercialization roadmap.
Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO)
Delémont, Switzerland
Higher education establishment
HES-SO Valais-Wallis is part of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, offering multilingual, practice-oriented Bachelor’s and applied-research programmes.
Team
- Manfred Zinn
- Véronique Amstutz
- Magdolna Zsivnovszki
Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry research group have been researching microbial strain screening, culture-media optimisation, sustainable-carbon-source bioprocess design, and continuous cultivation, with 25+ years of work promoting continuous cultivation in industry.
HES-SO leads the bioprocess development and scale-up: characterising both platform strains in benchtop bioreactors, running continuous cultivations at 3.6 L and scaling the E. coli process to 19 L, and supporting dynamic bioprocess modelling.