Central Resource "Experimental Systems Biology (ESB)

Mathematical modeling of cellular systems coupled with new experimental technologies from molecular biology is decisive for answering issues in medicine and bioprocess engineering.
The group investigates different levels of biological complexity and different scales of time and space, represented by appropriate model organisms that are addressed experimentally and theoretically.

Team Bettenbrock: Molecular Biology

Biological systems are inherently complex. Even a simple organism like the bacterium Escherichia coli is composed of a great number of molecules ranging from simple metabolites to proteins, RNA and DNA. Complex interactions of these molecules take place in order to secure survival and replication. Systems Biology aims to a holistic and quantitative understanding of these interactions by combining experimental biological research with mathematical and computational methods.

A number of different global and specific regulatory systems influencing the cells behavior have been identified in the past. Many of them have been analyzed extensively and a lot of molecular details about these interactions are known. But in spite of this knowledge very little is known about the interplay of different regulatory systems and about the interplay of the different levels of biological regulations. The interactions of the different levels of regulation in E. coli are in the focus of this research team. The group aims at an in depth understanding of cellular regulation. Detailed knowledge and understanding of the interplay of metabolism and regulation will greatly impact biotechnological processes as well as medical treatment.

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Team Grammel: Fermentation Technology, Microbial Physiology

The molecular approaches are complemented by the quantitative investigation of microbial physiology and its application for the development and optimization of bioprocesses. During the last years, a main focus was on a novel strategy to exploit photosynthetic bacteria for industrial processes based on the formation of photosynthetic products (carotenoides, porphyrines, biohydrogen, biopolymers, etc.) completely separated from the availability of light.

In particular the experimental determination of cellular redox states in combination with stoichiometric and kinetic computational modeling have contributed to employ facultative photosynthetic bacteria as model organisms for studying redox signaling and control.

The institute provides a well-equipped bioreactor facility with various cultivation systems at different scales as well as analytical instrumentation. Major techniques applied are LC-MS-based metabolite profiling and spectroscopical and biochemical methods for the analysis of microbial cells. In situ optical spectroscopy tools for online absorbance and fluorescence measurements have recently been developed and are applied for process monitoring, for example for microaerobic fermentations with photosynthetic bacteria.

Further organisms with currently running research projects include photosynthetic bacteria (Rhodospirillum rubrum), the poly-b-hydroxybutyrate producer Ralstonia eutropha as well as yeast (S. cerevisiae, P. pastoris) and algal cells.

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