Wacker Chemie AG and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are intensifying their partnership with the TUM WACKER Institute for Industrial Biotechnology. The aim of the institute is to further develop research in industrial biotechnology in Germany at a top international level. New approaches for the production of specialty chemicals and active ingredients from renewable raw materials will be researched together as a basis for sustainable economic activity.
Industrial biotechnology deals with the biotechnological production of specialty chemicals and active ingredients using optimized enzymes, cells or microorganisms. Renewable raw materials serve as the main starting material. Industrial biotechnology is used in various sectors, such as the food and health sectors or in the cosmetics and textile industries. Examples include active pharmaceutical ingredients as well as food supplements based on modified carbohydrates or proteins.
Industrial biotechnology is a future technology with great potential,” emphasizes Christian Hartel, CEO of Wacker Chemie AG. “With its help, processes based on fossil raw materials can be replaced. The use of energy and raw materials can be reduced. This lowers production costs, conserves resources and protects the environment.” The Institute of Industrial Biotechnology does valuable work in the development and implementation of sustainable biotechnological processes for a wide range of applications. “Industrial biotechnology is a key to a sustainable economy,” says Thomas F. Hofmann, President of TUM. “From research at the molecular level to chemical engineering and process technology, we are networking the disciplines and accelerating the effective transfer to industrial practice through close cooperation with WACKER.” TUM and WACKER have been working together for many years in various areas to actively promote the exchange between science and industry.
In researching new biotechnological production systems, one of the institute's main focuses is on the production of nucleic acids, which are used in the treatment of diseases, for example in cancer therapy. Other areas of research focus on the production of low-molecular compounds and the development of new process concepts. The institute works closely with WACKER's development department. The research work is accompanied by regular symposia.
The TUM WACKER Institute for Industrial Biotechnology is part of the Munich Institute of Integrated Materials, Energy and Process Engineering, an integrative research center that combines all of TUM's strengths at the interfaces of new materials, innovative process and production technologies and energy engineering. As a distinguished expert in the field of new biofunctional materials and process development for the separation of biotechnologically produced low and high molecular weight biomolecules, Prof. Sonja Berensmeier heads the TUM WACKER Institute. Around 20 doctoral candidates are currently conducting research at the institute.
Projects
ALE-NGS-Cys: The Chair of Biochemical Engineering (Prof. Weuster-Botz, TUM School of Engineering and Design) teamed up with the Werner Siemens-Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology (WSSB) (Prof. Brück, TUM School of Natural Sciences) to use adaptive laboratory evolution, next-generation sequencing and reverse engineering for improved L-cysteine production with the bacterium Escherichia coli.
ArtMeat: The new Assistant Professorship of Cellular Agriculture (Prof. Henkel, TUM School of Life Sciences) and the Chair of Bioseparation Engineering (Prof. Berensmeier, TUM School of Engineering and Design) combine their expertise in selective purification of bioactive molecules and scaffold design intending to enable completely animal-free meat cultivation.
ELEPHANT: The Chair of Bioseparation Engineering transfers its long-term expertise in the innovative principle of electrosorption to a potentially more sustainable robust process for biomolecule separation, here on the example of an industrially relevant nucleotide therapeutic production process.
OPTIMAL: The Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology (Prof. Becker) explores optimization strategies aimed at enhancing extracellular protein production rates in the yeast Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris). Known for its capacity for high cell density growth, K. phaffii is one of the most important expression systems for biotechnological protein production of biotherapeutics and enzymes for the food industry.
POP-UP-Cys: The Chair of Biochemical Engineering analyses the population heterogeneity in fermentation processes with Escherichia coli to make industrial-scale L-cysteine production more efficient. The understanding of the population heterogeneity in fermentations can also be transferred to other microbiological production processes and support their upscaling.
Softsens: The newly established Professorship for Bioprocess Engineering (Prof. Zavrel) at TUM Campus Straubing aims to develop and launch a soft-sensor with a control strategy, which will redundantize sample collection during industrial fermentation. Such a sensor could, e.g., be used for the on-line determination of metabolite concentrations and will facilitate control and optimization of fermentation processes.
Vienna: The organism vibro natrigens could be a valuable alternative to the classical “workhorse” organism Escherichia coli in industrial biotechnology because it potentially offers substantially higher growth rates and metabolic activities. To explore the feasibility of domesticating V. natrigens for industrial-scale production processes, the Professorship Microbial Biotechnology (Prof. Blombach) and the Chair of Chemistry of Biogenic Resources (Prof. Sieber) collaborate closely at the Campus Straubing. To promote the interchange among projects, all doctoral candidates meet semiannually in symposia to present and discuss the progress of their projects with their supervisors and participating scientists from the Wacker Chemie AG.
About Wacker Chemie AG
Wacker Chemie AG has been conducting basic biotechnological research since the 1980s. The group launched its first bioengineered product in the 1990s. Nowadays, its biotechnology business is bundled together in the WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS division. The business division offers services, solutions, and products for the life-science and food industries based on biotechnological processes.This includes production of proteins and nucleic acids as biopharmaceuticals as a CDMO for customers from biotech and pharma. BIOSOLUTIONS also produces high value ingredients for food and cosmetics based on microbial fermentation technology both as a CDMO for customers and for the own product portfolio. These include e.g., amino acids, specialty oligosaccharides, food proteins, or vitamins.
Steering Committee
The steering committee of the TUM WACKER Institute for Industrial Biotechnology consists of two members from TUM and two members from Wacker Chemie AG:
• Prof. Sonja Berensmeier (TUM, Head)
• SVP Prof. Gerhard Kramer (TUM)
• Dr. Martina Schulze-Adams (WACKER)
• Dr. Oliver Minge (WACKER)