Biochemical Engineering

 The meteoric rise of scientific progress in biotechnology makes it the scientific discipline with the fastest growth in knowledge. In industrial biotechnology ("white biotechnology") it is especially the combination of modern methods of molecular biology and biochemical engineering that opens up new and attractive applications.

The Biochemical Engineering Group has accepted the challenge that these new opportunities provide. It aims to develop innovative products and processes for the enzymatic and microbial synthesis of industrially relevant components, especially fine and specialty chemicals.

The majority of research projects focuses on proof of concept for technical feasibility of innovative enzymatic and microbial production strategies on laboratory scale. Favorite methods are the integration of techniques for selective in-situ product removal into bioprocesses and metabolic engineering for improvement of microbial production strains. Furthermore the application of unconventional reaction media and processes for the specific biocatalytic oxyfunctionalisation of hydrophobic substrates. Most of the current research activities focus on the biotechnological synthesis of flavour and fragrance compounds or generally on the production of terpenes.