DFG Funding: Food from CO2?
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding a Middle East Collaboration between researchers from the Cluster of Excellence CMFI/University of Tübingen and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The aim of the project "Metabolic engineering of autotrophic E. coli strains for biotechnological production of amino acids from CO2" is to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into amino acids. In a further step, the amino acids could be used to produce food supplements.
For this purpose, Hannes Link (CMFI Principal Investigator) and Ron Milo (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rechovot, Israel) and their research groups want to affect the metabolism of the bacterium Escherichia coli.
"Reducing CO2 emissions is only one way to contribute to the climate objectives by the politics. This measure alone will probably not be sufficient to counter the effects of the climate crisis in time. The fixation of CO2, that has already been released, is also an important goal. In our approach, we utilize CO2 as a carbon source for an engineered bacterium (E. coli) that overproduces amino acids. In the future, such bacteria could be used to produce food supplements from CO2," says Hannes Link.
The project is financially funded by the DFG with around 500k€ and initially scheduled to run for three years.
Go to the Research Group Hannes Link
About the DFG Middle East Collaboration
Within the framework of individual grants, the DFG supports German-Israeli cooperation projects, sometimes involving additional partners from Palestine or neighbouring countries from Israel (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria). The maximum funding period is six years. The aim is to strengthen cooperation between scientists from both countries.
Prof. Dr. Hannes Link
University of Tübingen
Bacterial Metabolomics Group
Leon Kokkoliadis
Public Relations Management
Tel: +49 7071 29-74707
E-Mail: leon.kokkoliadis@uni-tuebingen.de
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