National Doctoral Programme in
Informational and Structural Biology

The search for a replacement(s) to fossil fuels, with infrastructure-compatible alternatives produced by renewable and sustainable methods, is a global issue on a broad socio-economic level. Biological methods can contribute towards such a replacement and are particularly suitable for conversion of sunlight and CO2 into the complex hydrocarbon-fuels that are compatible with current engine and distribution-infrastructures.

The current focus of the BioEnergy group is to contribute towards the development of biological methods for renewable production of carbon and non-carbon containing transport fuels. Towards this aim we carry out both applied and fundamental research with a combination of computational and experimental research methodologies. For example, NADP(H) and NAD(H) are central electron carriers that are used to reduce fuel intermediates whilst iron sulfur clusters are essential electron-transferring co-factors of enzymes in H2-metabolism. In order to re-engineer the metabolic flux of fuel producing organisms, we study how the metabolism of NAD(P)H- and iron sulfur cluster assembly and repair is regulated in prokaryotes and cyanobacteria with a systems biology approach. Similarly, to create novel hydrocarbon pathways, we search for enzymes that catalyze key catalytic steps in plants and cyanobacteria, and in order to optimize host metabolism we carry out adaptive evolution. Towards implementation, we then use this knowledge and materials to construct novel metabolic pathways and optimized host metabolism by rational metabolic engineering. Computationally, we utilize meta-analysis in the search for enzymes, metabolic flux modeling in order to aid metabolic engineering, and a broad spectrum of network analysis for systems biology studies.