Capturing carbon (non) naturally! – How we can use synthetic microbiology to rethink (and redesign) the global carbon cycle

Sprecher: Tobias Erb (Max-Planck-Institut für terrestrische Mikrobiologie)

Gastgeber: Hannes Link (CMFI)

Flash Talk: Anna Lisa Niemann (Titel & Abstract tba)

Datum & Uhrzeit: 28.05.2026 | 12:30–15:00 Uhr

Ort:  Seminarraum Ebene 2, M3 Forschungszentrum, Otfried-Müller-Straße 37, 72076 Tübingen

Öffentliche Veranstaltung. Keine Anmeldung erforderlich. Nach den Vorträgen und der Diskussion findet ein kleiner Empfang in der EIngangshalle des GUZ statt.

Abstract:

To address climate crisis, humans must urgently reduce CO2 emissions. At the same time, we need to find new ways to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. Nature captures billions of tons of CO2 every year through photosynthesis. Yet, natural photosynthesis is not sufficient to compensate anthropogenic emissions. My talk will discuss the evolution and limitation of biological photosynthesis and showcase how we can combine chemistry and synthetic biology to create alternatives that convert CO2 more efficiently than those processes evolved by nature.

I will present strategies of how to engineer novel enzymes and catalytic networks for the fixation of CO2 (Schwander et al. Science 2016), present efforts to power these reactions with sustainable energy (Luo et al. Joule 2023), and talk about the transplantation of these new-to-nature networks into natural and synthetic cells to create novel catalytic systems (Giaveri et al. Science 2024), artificial chloroplasts (Miller et al. Science 2020) and cell factories (Luo et al. Nature Catalysis 2024) for the capture and conversion of CO2 into value-added compounds. My lecture will also take a broader look at the field of synthetic biology & biochemical engineering, through which humans can initiate and realize radically new solutions that natural evolution has not invented (yet).

Über Tobias Erb:

Tobias J. Erb is synthetic biologist and Director at the Max Planck Institute for terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany. His team interfaces biology and chemistry and centers on the discovery, function and engineering of CO2-converting enzymes and pathways. Research in Erb’s lab crosses multiple scales: from the molecular mechanisms of carboxylases to their ecological relevance, and from understanding the evolution of natural CO2-fixation to developing new-to-nature solutions, such as synthetic CO2-fixation pathways and artificial chloroplasts.

Tobi Erb studied Chemistry and Biology and did his PhD in 2009 at the University of Freiburg (D) and the Ohio State University (US). After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Illinois (US), Erb headed a junior research group at ETH Zürich (CH) from 2011 to 2014, before he relocated to the Max Planck Institute in Marburg, where he was promoted to Director in 2017. Tobi Erb received numerous awards, amongst others the Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is member of several scientific academies, including the National Academies of Sciences, Leopoldina and the National Academy of Engineering, acatech.