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.
On Friday 18th of february, our three freshly started PhD students gave a seminar to introduce their working plans.
The presentation introduced basic principles of constraint-based modeling together with advanced modeling techniques, such as proteome allocation and thermodynamics-based constraints. Current project is focused on model development for non-conventional yeast Rhodotorula toruloides.
2. Gabriel Luz Chaves – Engineering R. toruloides for improved lipid production
In this seminar was discussed the use of non-conventional yeast, R. toruloides, for the production of lipids and the application of synthetic biology tools for strain improvement.
3. Henrique Sepulveda – Development of 3D printed engineered living materials for growth-decoupled biochemicals production
The topics of 3D printing and engineered living materials for biochemicals production was introduced in this seminar. Followed by a talk about our current research goals for the Ph.D. Project.
From left: Gabriel, Henrique and Alina
Feel free to watch the seminar record
Petri Lahtvee introduced the concepts and opportunities, but also potential threats of bioengineering and synthetic biology at the Estonian national TV (ETV) broadcast ‘Center of Excellence for curiosity’ (Uudishimu tippkeskus).
The broadcast can be streamed (Season 4; Episode 12. Only in Estonian) here.
In the course of the PERFECOAT project, Nemailla Bonturi and Petri Lahtvee visited Technical University of Munich (TUM, Straubing, Germany) to perform for the first time to our knowledge industrial scale (30L bioreactor) cultivations of R. toruloides in xylose-rich hydrolysate (Fibenol, Estonia).
The Estonian cultural magazine Vikerkaar published a series of opinion articles on novel technologies influencing humans in the coming decades. Associate professors Erkki Karo and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee from TalTech discussed the influence of biorevolution and synthetic biology – ‘The third coming of biorevolution in the era of the Green Deal’.
The article is available (only in Estonian) here.
In autumn 2021, Alina Rekena from our group was visiting Heinemann Lab from Molecular Systems Biology research group led by Prof. Dr. Matthias Heinemann at University of Groningen, the Netherlands, to work on the development of thermodynamics-based computational models for non-conventional yeasts. The visit was supported by Yeast4Bio Short Term Scientific Mission program. Alina learned how to develop computational models integrated with biochemical thermodynamics, including Gibbs energy balance, and worked on a core metabolic model of Rhodotorula toruloides. The productive collaboration with Heinemann Lab will enhance the competences in systems biology of our group, help to study metabolic properties of non-conventional yeasts and to use computational tools to design efficient yeast-based cell factories, which is the topic of Alina’s PhD studies.
Collaboration project between TalTech, University of Tartu and Life-science University together with three Estonian ministries – ADDVAL-BIOEC – Added value in Estonian bioeconomy – with a strong contribution also from our Bioengineering group is finishing. The collected research will be presented at the conference on October 26th, 2021, at Erinevate Tubade Klubi, Telliskivi 60-A1, Tallinn (event language is Estonian).
More information: www.taltech.ee/biomajandus
Register to the event: https://forms.gle/hiUc9MCBefLsPePi8
You are welcome to participate in the following guest seminar.
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 14th 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
On September 13-17h happened the first Yeast4Bio Training School financed by the COST agency and coordinated by Jose L. Martinez (Associate Professor and Head of Fermentation core in the Technical University of Denmark). Our group member, Gintarė Liudžiūtė learned there fundamental knowledge of fermentation design and analysis applied to non-conventional yeasts which are used as cell factories for high-value compounds production. Attending to the first Yeast4Bio Training School was a significant personal and professional opportunity to develop scientific competences into our group.
TalTech and Food Tech and Bioengineering lab will be present at the Garage48 event Food 2021, organized in Tartu, Estonia.
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
Prof. Petri Lahtvee was introducing the Sustainable Food Production and Food Economy 4.0 at the Estonian Society of Human Genetics conference, organized from September 30 to October 1st in Haapsalu, Estonia.
Full program: here
It was a great pleasure to visit the COST Action Yeast4Bio bi-annual conference in A Coruna, Spain and chair a session on non-conventional yeast Systems and Synthetic Biology together with Prof. Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro.
Two days full of exciting scientific discussions!!! Thank you to all the speakers and participants for creating such a nice environment and Prof. Christian Kennes @UDC_gal for organising it. #bioeconomy #nonconventionalyeast #bioproducts
On the 28th of October 2021 (14h- 16h) a seminar will be given by Petri-Jaan Lahtvee (Assoc. Professor) on Circular Economy at ALU Freiburg (Germany), one of the partner in the Local Electron Delivery in Bioinks for Efficient Yeast Cell Factories project.
This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.
Here the link to access the conference
https://uni-freiburg.zoom.us/j/66501878693?pwd=Sk1WQk1HNXpIdlBIRjhJWGlSYVB0QT09
We had fun at the group outing at Nõmme Adventure park, climbing trees, ropes and free-falling from the trees:)
Thanks, Andreia, for organising it!
Two new students have joined the group. Supported by Dora Plus scholarship both PhD students from Brazil, Luísa Czamanski and Julianno Sabedotti De Biaggi, will work 6 and 3 months on R. toruloides, respectively. Luísa will focus on engineering R. toruloides strains capable of producing terpenes, which have a wide range of applications such as precursors of renewable fuels. Julianno will focus on R. toruloides carotenoid metabolism by expressing the enzyme phytoene desaturase from multiple phyla of Fungi in Escherichia coli and analysing its activity on different substrates in vitro.
We are excited to announce a new publication on 3D printing of living materials. In this ACS – Applied Bio Materials publication led by Tobias Butelmann, we examined the permissibility of oxygen in hydrogels and how yeast metabolism functions in response to immobilization.
This publication results from our TalTech research group’s ongoing fruitful collaboration with the Alshakim Nelson’s Laboratory at University of Washington and Tarmo Tamm’s Laboratory at Tartu University.
Congrats to all co-authors for the fantastic achievement!
Congrats to all the authors for their great work!
Prof. Petri Lahtvee and senior scientist Dr. Nemailla Bonturi were presenting at this year’s largest yeast conference ICY15 meets ICYGMB 30 (International Conference of Yeast meets International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology), taking place on August 23-27, 2021 and hosted by BOKU, Austria.
Petri gave a talk and chaired the Systems Biology session, while Nemailla gave a talk at the Synthetic Biology session.
More info: https://icy15.boku.ac.at/
During his research visit at TalTech, our partner from ALU Freiburg, Tobias Butelmann, will give a seminar (seminar room SCI-109 or online here) about living materials and the current project about Local Electron Delivery in Bioinks for Efficient Yeast Cell Factories. The seminar will be publicly available. Since this project is highly interdisciplinary, we invite all interested people to join this seminar!
Date: 06 August 2021, 11:00 – 12:00.
Abstract: The need for sustainable processes to produce value-added chemicals and materials displays a major challenge of our time. Engineered microbes have the proven power to solve these challenges, as more efficient processes are required in terms of the cell factory as well as the cultivation performance. Bioprocesses currently used in industry are primarily based on batch and fed-batch mode, where yields and productivities have peaked and require technological innovations to uplift this cap on productivities. Additive manufacturing technologies can provide opportunities to move beyond traditional processes and empower a new industrial revolution. 3D printing can be applied together with engineered microbes to print living materials with superior properties to common suspension cultures used in biorefineries. Those living materials consist of a bioink that encapsulates the host organism – a cell factory for the desired product.
One bottleneck in engineered microbes is the regeneration of co-factors, which are critical for their efficiency. To overcome this, special conductible bioinks for living materials can be designed that help embedded microbes by the delivery of electrons for co-factor regeneration. The successful implementation of such a platform has the potential to increase the efficiency of engineered microbes by multiples and, hence, create sustainable biorefinery processes.
This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.
