Molecular biotechnology

Yeast has been used for thousands of years to make food and drink. More recently, yeast has also been scientifically well studied and used in the production of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, secondary metabolites or bioenergy. Using baker’s yeast as a working horse, we create new ways to make “tried and tested” products – however in a more efficient way as in the existing production methods.

In nature, the most basic active entities are proteins, which besides serving as structural elements, function as regulatory molecules or catalysts. Proteins exhibiting defined regulatory or catalytic activities can be assembled into functionally active modules, and these modules can be assembled into complex systems that can fulfill the desired tasks.

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous molecules with very diverse functions ranging from energy source to structural elements in cells. Furthermore, certain oligosaccharides such as N-glycans have the ability to modulate the functions and properties of proteins they are attached to. However, in recent years it has become clear that oligosaccharides themselves can modulate many biological processes. Together with Valio we explore novel ways to build bioactive oligosaccharides that could be produced in an industrial scale and used as active ingredients in food applications.

To match the ever-growing need for novel bioproducts and pharmaceuticals, metagenomics is as an alternative method for isolation of novel enzymes and pathways. In this approach all the DNA found in an environmental sample is isolated and transferred to a surrogate host for functional expression and testing. Using this method, new enzymes can be discovered.