Category: Event

The bioengineering team held two workshops on enzymes 🧪 Children and their parents had an opportunity to learn about enzymes and carry out three hands-on experiments to see how enzymes facilitate chemical reactions in real life.
*How pineapple juice coagulates milk proteins thanks to the enzyme bromelain 🍍
*How lactase tablets help in digesting lactose for those who are lactose intolerant 🥛
*How starch is digested in the mouth by the enzyme amylase found in saliva 👅

Among other things, the participants learned the basics of food analytics and measured pH and glucose content in milk.

The bioengineering team is always happy to inspire the next generation of future scientists!

12 doctoral students who are part of YAF project gathered in Tallinn University of Technology for three days to learn about metabolic engineering. YAF project, funded by the European Union, aims to produce new generation of yeast-based sustainable aviation fuels via microbial means.

Over the course of three days the participants gained insight in molecular and synthetic biology, genotyping, phenotype screening, characterization and genome-scale modeling; and obtained hands-on experience in plasmid preparation and transformation.

After daily lectures there was time to share scientific gains and pains in an informal environment. The participants also had a chance to learn about the History of Tallinn and experience traditional Estonian socializing activities such as sauna.

It was a diverse scientific and cultural experience, which gathered students from seven partner organizations: Institute Imdea Energy (IME), Tallinn University of Technology (TUT), Technical University of Denmark (DTU),  Åbo Academy University (ABO), Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT), Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP) and Imperial College London (ICL)

We are very happy to have welcomed such a great team of young scientists and thank Juliano Sabedotti de Biaggi, Srdjan Gavrilovic and Kaisa Orgusaar for organizing the summer school.

Petri-Jaan Lahtvee presented the opportunities of wood valorization at Circular Economy Conference held by Circular Economy Laboratory in Tallinn University of Technology.

In his words, when it comes to wood, the majority today is still used for energy generation – one of the lowest-value uses imaginable. Emerging technologies now offer promising alternatives for chemical or biological valorization, yet the question remains: are we bold enough to invest in these innovations, even though they may still require optimisation and large-scale industrial validation?

These issues were discussed with experts from the timber and energy industries. In Petri´s personal view, innovation and extracting the highest possible value from our limited natural resources is the only viable path forward if Estonia wants to succeed in the global economy.

📷 by Arno Mikkor

Bioengineering team enjoyed their winter seminar and workshop at Valgehobusemäe. The winter seminar, carried out by Jaana Liigand-Juhkam, was conducted on values to enhance group´s collaboration. We learned about how values drive our everyday actions and what to do in case of value conflicts. To finish, we divided into groups to decipher research group´s own values for better collaboration.

We were lucky to have the outing during one of the most beautiful winter days. During free time, we indulged in wintersports and had the opportunity to learn skiing under our skilled senior researcher and ski enthusiast Rahul Kumar.

For more information about our values please read the About section.

☕ The Biotech Breakfast organized as part of sTARTUp Day in Tartu, Estonia was packed with people!

The Biotechnology Breakfast was the final event of the BIOCONNECT (Towards an integrated Baltic-Nordic biotech cluster) project, organized by the Bioengineering and Food Technology research group together with the project partners.

During the project, the partners Biocatalyst Foundation (Latvia), the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, the Association LithuaniaBIO, Vilnius University Life Sciences Center (Lithuania), the Estonian Center for BioSustainability, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), and Synbio Powerlabs (Finland) conducted interviews with Baltic biotech stakeholders to map the state, opportunities and bottlenecks of biotech industry in the region. Based on the gathered knowledge, a Baltic biotech action plan was created.

👩‍🏫 During the event, the newly completed Baltic biotech action plan was introduced by Andrii Shekhirev (Biocatalyst, LV) and disseminated for feedback.

In the opening speech, Ulrika Edvardsson from AstraZeneca Bio Venture Hub (SE) spoke about cross-sectoral cooperation. The day ended with a panel discussion by Mart Toots (Enterprise Estonia), Mika Kukkurainen (Nordic Foodtech VC), Laurynas Karpus (Biomatter) and Ulrika Edvardsson (AstraZeneca BioVenture Hub).

💬 The breakfast brought together the parties involved in biotechnology in the region: companies, public sector representatives, investors and researchers, which provided an opportunity to get to know each other and build connections. One of the important learnings during the project was that the biotech stakeholders do not even always know each other within the same region. The breakfast was a wonderful opportunity to meet in the same space and network: more cross-border interaction, which is exactly what the project aimed for.

👥👥The interest in the event was a success. There were over 80 people in the hall which was beyond expectations. Everyone was able to fit in and there was plenty of food🥐!

Thank you everyone who came and made the event happen!

TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology Bioengineering team and University of Tartu hosted a course on bioethics under the umbrella of Estonian Centre for Biosustainability at Institute of Bioengineering.

📖 Over the course of two days, our staff and students were educated on the topics of responsible research, data management, GMOs, consent and biological samples, animal testing, novel foods, biosafety and international protocols such as Cartagena and Nagoya.

🧫 The participants had a chance to visit the premises of yet to be build biofoundry, the laboratories of gas fermentation and wood valorization and peek behind the doors of BSL3 laboratory in University of Tartu. The programme was complemented with group work and teaming activites.

👩‍🏫 A special thank you to the interdisciplinary contributors – Sadia Khalid, Kaisa Orgusaar, Professors Kadri Simm, Erkki Karo, Andres Merits, Mart Loog, Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, Hannes Kollist, Vallo Varik, Rainis Venta and Ilona Faustova.

The course was called into existence under DigiBio project of the Horizon sub-programme Widening for Excellence.

On 18th October The Science in three minutes competition found it´s end during an official gala. The competition initiated by Estonian Academy of Sciences was held in English for the first time. Bioengineering doctoral student Inna Lipova was one among the nominees and gave a powerful presentation about how food waste is being valorized into high value-added carotenoid astaxanthin through bioprocess.

Read more about Innas´s research here.

Bioengineering opened its laboratory for visitors for Scientists´ Night organized by TalTech. For one night, students, adults as well as children had the chance to explore fluoroscent bacteria, see 3D printing of hydrogels and engage in conversations with our doctoral students. The children had an opportunity to learn about nucleotides and build a sweet model of DNA helix. Moreover, they could have hands-on learning experience in the difference of plant and animal cells.

The Bioengineering team took the most out of a brief Estonian summer and had a day bonding over open air activities. We had a day for sailing, hiking in Naissaare island and enjoying meals together. The time spent together sparked new conversations and created bonds between team members who may not communicate a lot during regular working hours. One of the interns commented: “I had so many conversations with people that I don´t normally talk to, it is worth a couple of months´ conversations within one day!”. Relaxed environment is a good opportunity to learn about the team members and everyone agreed that we had a lot of fun.

As an international team the learning moment of the day was intercultural communication. The participants were invited to step out of their comfort zones and participate in games which required performing tasks out of the box.

In this seminar, Dr. Francesco Gatto illustrates how his group investigated regulation of cancer metabolism using systems biology approaches leading to the discovery of potential cancer biomarkers for early detection. The talk further focuses on the challenge to translate fundamental discoveries in clinical practice and the foundation of Elypta – a start-up university spin-off that is executing this transition.