DFG Funding: Food from CO2?

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

RG Link