Little candidates as terrific hopes for medication and biotechnology

An at any time-growing world inhabitants, an rising typical of living and environmental difficulties this sort of as anthropogenic weather transform, ocean pollution, the declining availability of arable land and dwindling fossil resources—these are present day global troubles. For that reason, the German Federal Ministry of Schooling and Analysis has committed the Science Yr 2020/21 to the subject matter Bioeconomy with the purpose of conference these issues with very little heroes. The ‘stars’ of bioeconomy are proteins, algae, microorganisms, and other very small creatures with excellent affect.

At the Chair of Technical Biochemistry at TU Dresden, the researchers will now target on some of the oldest of such tiny superheroes: cyanobacteria. There are about 2000 species of cyanobacteria and numerous of these species have been poorly researched. Dr. Paul D’Agostino, Professor Tobias Gulder and their team—including cooperation partners Michelle Gehringer (TU Kaiserslautern), Michael Lakatos and Patrick Jung (the two Hochschule Kaiserslautern) – hope that uncommon cyanobacteria will generate promising final results and make an ground breaking contribution to bioeconomy.

“Microorganisms develop useful natural and organic molecules with wonderful opportunity for many applications. It is essential to know that strange organisms often also create novel bioactive agents. The discovery of these kinds of new, bioactive molecules is important if a single thinks, for example, of new healthcare troubles this kind of as the coronavirus and the progressive progress of resistance to set up energetic agents. Within the scope of this venture, we as a result want to look into the genetic potential of extremely abnormal cyanobacteria for the manufacturing of impressive energetic pharmaceutical components,” points out Gulder.

As a initially stage, the team will forecast the opportunity of organic compounds by sequencing the genomes and subsequent bioinformatic assessment. The results can then be translated into the focused discovery of new molecules working with contemporary approaches of artificial biology and biotechnology. As a closing phase, the challenge will focus on the creation and characterization of these purely natural compounds and on the application of the enzymes developing these compounds as biocatalysts for the advancement of sustainable chemical procedures.