News
Phototrophic and efficient high cell density cultivation of C. reinhardtii
Phototrophic and efficient high cell density cultivation of C. reinhardtii The green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii offers great potential as an
PLOS Genetics publication by MERIT team
PLOS Genetics publication by MERIT team Thomas Baier, Nick Jacobebbinghaus, Alexander Einhaus, Kyle J. Lauersen and Olaf Kruse published their
Dutch permit to work with GMO
Dutch permit to work with GMO Dutch authorities gave officially permit to work with GMO in the AlgaePARC pilot facility,
Congratulations Ana Sofia Camacho!
Congratulations Ana Sofia Camacho! Congratulations to Ana Sofia Camacho from Wageningen University, who presented her M.Sc. thesis entitled “In-situ diterpenoid
MERIT on Bielefeld Research TV
MERIT on Bielefeld Research TV A campus TV team visited the department for Algae Biotechnology & Bioenergy of Bielefeld University
MERIT at ALGAEUROPE 2019
MERIT at ALGAEUROPE 2019 Consortium member Dr. Iago Dominguez Teles was selected as an oral speaker to present results of
Second MERIT general assembly
Second MERIT general assembly The second MERIT general assembly took place from 18th to 19th Nov 2019. The event was
Terpnet 2019
Terpnet 2019 The MERIT consortium presents its recent progress in engineering Chlamydomonas for phototrophic production of diterpenoids at the 14th
Intronserter, an advanced online tool for design of intron containing transgenes
Intronserter, an advanced online tool for design of intron containing transgenes The Team of Bielefeld University has launched their new
International Conference on Algal Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts
International Conference on Algal Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts Olaf Kruse (Bielefeld University) is among the chairs of the 9th conference
First MERIT general assembly
First MERIT general assembly The MERIT consortium conducted its first general assembly from 20th to 21st March 2019, eight months
Kickoff meeting, Wageningen, Netherlands
Kickoff meeting, Wageningen, Netherlands MERIT -an ERA-CoBioTech project leveraging state of the art synthetic biology for microalgal engineering- has been kicked off.
Phototrophic and efficient high cell density cultivation of C. reinhardtii
Phototrophic and efficient high cell density cultivation of C. reinhardtii
- Januar 18, 2021
The green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii offers great potential as an innovative green-cell factory by combining fast and inexpensive phototrophic growth with advanced options for genetic engineering. The available cultivation media (e.g. TAP, HSM), however, were developed for lab scale settings and typically result in low cell densities of 2-3⋅107 cells/mL, which are insufficient for many industrial production processes.
Researchers at the Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) from Bielefeld University (Germany) have now published a report in Bioresource Technology1 that outlines a new, innovative strategy for fully phototrophic and easy-to-apply high cell density cultivations, to overcome these biomass accumulation limitations. By systematically increasing macro- and micronutrients in combination with elevated light and CO2, the team was able to achieve a 6-fold increase in cell number and biomass accumulation, reaching up to ~2⋅108 cells/mL and 20 g/L biomass dry weight, respectively. This optimized cultivation strategy will support large-scale cultivation efforts of C. reinhardtii and further enable its use in biotechnological applications.
Media recipe can be found online: https://www.chlamycollection.org/methods/media-recipes/
PLOS Genetics publication by MERIT team
PLOS Genetics publication by MERIT team
- Juli 30, 2020
Thomas Baier, Nick Jacobebbinghaus, Alexander Einhaus, Kyle J. Lauersen and Olaf Kruse published their results on Intron Mediated Enhancement (IME) of nuclear gene expression in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the journal PLOS Genetics.
In this work, several endo- and exogenous introns were systematically investigated and multiple sequences eliciting strong IME in C. reinhardtii were identified. Insertion into coding sequences were found to positively affect expression rates through a synergy of additive transcription enhancement and exon length reduction. Stimulating Introns were also found to be broadly applicable in different expression constructs and induced high protein accumulation in this alga.
Dutch permit to work with GMO
Dutch permit to work with GMO
- Mai 6, 2020
Dutch authorities gave officially permit to work with GMO in the AlgaePARC pilot facility, which was applied for by the Bioprocess Engineering Group of Wageningen University.
Congratulations Ana Sofia Camacho!
Congratulations Ana Sofia Camacho!
- März 15, 2020
Congratulations to Ana Sofia Camacho from Wageningen University, who presented her M.Sc. thesis entitled “In-situ diterpenoid extraction from a GM Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain”, conducted as a part of the MERIT Project.
MERIT on Bielefeld Research TV
MERIT on Bielefeld Research TV
- Januar 21, 2020
A campus TV team visited the department for Algae Biotechnology & Bioenergy of Bielefeld University to report about the MERIT project. The film clip is now available online.
MERIT at ALGAEUROPE 2019
MERIT at ALGAEUROPE 2019
- Dezember 3, 2019
Consortium member Dr. Iago Dominguez Teles was selected as an oral speaker to present results of the MERIT project at this year´s ALGAEUROPE 2019 conference, held in Paris/France.
The title of his presentation will be “Putting GMO microalgae to work: continuous diterpenoid production by Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”.
Second MERIT general assembly
Second MERIT general assembly
- November 18, 2019
The second MERIT general assembly took place from 18th to 19th Nov 2019.
The event was hosted by Prof. René Wijffels and his team from Wageningen University & Research (https://www.wur.nl/en.htm). Representatives from all project partners used the opportunity to present and discuss the progress made in microalga engineering and to intensify the scientific exchange and technical collaborations.
After several successful steps of strain engineering, the lab scale production process will now be established by the WP3 project partners.
The next meeting is scheduled for September 2020 at the International CeBiTec Research Conference (ICRC).
Terpnet 2019
Terpnet 2019
- August 26, 2019
The MERIT consortium presents its recent progress in engineering Chlamydomonas for phototrophic production of diterpenoids at the 14th International Meeting on the Biosynthesis, Function and Synthetic Biology of Isoprenoids. The TERPNET 2019 is taking place from 26 August to 30 August at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany and is organized by the Leibniz-Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
Intronserter, an advanced online tool for design of intron containing transgenes
Intronserter, an advanced online tool for design of intron containing transgenes
- Juni 26, 2019
The Team of Bielefeld University has launched their new web tool “Intronserter” for the reliable and standardized design of intron-containing transgenes for robust transgene expression from the algal nuclear genome. Intronserter implements back-translation of input amino acid sequences with user-defined codon usage tables, removes undesired sequence elements, minimizes exon lengths by systematic intron insertions, and generates ready-to-synthesize DNA sequences for expression of any target protein. We hope to greatly facilitate the design of intron-containing constructs and to promote advanced and mature engineering efforts with algal as well as other host organisms.
Access to Intronserter: https://bibiserv.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de/intronserter
International Conference on Algal Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts
International Conference on Algal Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts
- Juni 17, 2019
Olaf Kruse (Bielefeld University) is among the chairs of the 9th conference on Algal Biomass, Biofuels and Bioproducts, on 17 – 19 June, 2019 in Boulder, CO, USA.