The participants continued their training provided by hfp Consulting, where they learned about emotional intelligence, active listening, leadership, conflict management and the importance of starting with “why” when explaining their research. On the second day, they received updates from each research project, allowing them to clearly see the progress each doctoral student is making. As always, it was great to meet the whole consortium to get a bigger picture of the project, not to mention how energising it is to engage with such a motivated and united group of students. We are grateful to hfp consulting for the insightful training and to Åbo Akademi University for the warm hospitality. It was an enriching experience, and we can not wait for the next one.

The project Yeast-Based solutions for Sustainable Aviation Fuels is funded by the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks (MSCA-DN) under the Grant Agreement 101120389.

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Alīna made an oral presentation on the topic of Chemostats and Omics: Tools to Improve Lipid-producing Yeasts.

Juliano presented a poster and had a flash talk on the topic of Digitalisation of biology: the dawning of the Taltech Biofoundry.

The conference covered the great scope of microbiology research in the Baltics, from virology to biotechnology. The program was involving and allowed everyone to speak at the main stage. Even though it was centered in the Baltics, the conference also had attendees from Germany, Italy and the USA.

Juliano noted that the 6^th CBM was a great opportunity to present the first steps of the Estonian Biofoundry in Taltech, as one of this project’s goals is to enhance regional development by extending the biosustainable research and industrial practices in the Baltic region. At the same time, it is always good to catch up on what our peers are working on, and to get out of the Biotech bubble to see that we a just part of a bigger research effort to make our world a better place in the long term.

Alīna noted that the Selection of talks highlighted the interdisciplinarity of microbiology research in the Baltic countries. Closer to our expertise, the sessions on microbial diversity and waste valorisation allowed us to learn more about microbes, their origin, and biotechnological applicability. She presented our work at the Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology session on exploring metabolic mechanisms of lipid-producing yeast Rhodotorula toruloides for industrial applications.

 

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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!

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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.

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It was an honour to organize a groundbreaking event as an official side program of Latitude 59 The day brought together over 110 leaders from the startups, government, academia, and the food industry to explore the future of sustainable food innovation.

As part of the programme, the guests had a glimpse of the flavours of future offered by ÄIO and Enifer. The curated session of novel foods tasting that are yet to be approved under the EU Novel Food Regulation featured fermentation-based oils and mycoproteins.

Keynote speaker Anna Handscuch (Future Affairs) set the tone for why we need forward-looking regulatory frameworks. The diverse panel of experts Dilek Ercili-Cura, Niina Valkonen, Ahmad Adel Zeidan, Kaire Roosi, Anna Handschuh and Mika Kukkurainen shared their insights about the foodtech innovation.
The tailor-made lunch menu compiled by Äio´s chef Hiro featured best examples from Estonian food companies: Raw Edge, Thormi, FUNKI, TFTAK, Mati Foods, SUNFLY Hapu, Nord Tempeh and YOOK

During the second half of the day, Rain Kuldjärv (TFTAK) presented case studies of successful research and industry collaborations and the guests had a chance to participate in matchmaking to facilitate future collaborations.

Photos by Sven Zacek and Kaisa Orgusaar.

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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

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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.

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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!

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📖 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.

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Read more about Innas´s research here.

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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.

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For the participants, it was a perfect chance to learn, explore, and interact with scientists who share enthusiasm for science. For us, the Thanksgiving celebration served as a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the achievements and milestones we reached during the Science Day. We are truly grateful for the organisation by the department, which enabled us to create an engaging and enriching experience for the high school students. We look forward to future events that will continue to inspire and ignite the curiosity of young minds!

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Altogether, Science Day 2022 at Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology offered 19 different workshops that were attended by 89 participants. Majority of workshop participants were high school students, but almost every 4th participant was from outside educational system. Next time it is going to be more focused on high school students and is planned for the next year 2023.

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More information: www.taltech.ee/biomajandus

Register to the event: https://forms.gle/hiUc9MCBefLsPePi8

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Prof. Sergio Bordel Velasco

Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, University of Valladolid, Spain

Title: Metabolism of methanotrophic bacteria. A Genome-Scale modeling perspective.

When: Thursday, October 14^th at 4 PM

Where: SCI-028 (on-line link will follow)

Link to publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=I2K5LLUAAAAJ

Host: Assoc. Prof. Petri-Jaan Lahtvee

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Garage48 Food – greener food for a greener planet will take place from October 24-26, 2021 online and offline.

More info and registration: https://garage48.org/events/garage48-food

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