SPP 2170:  Novel production processes and multi-scale analysis, modelling and design of cell-cell and cell-bioreactor interactions (InterZell)

• Subject Area: Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering ; Biology ; Medicine
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402205663

The coordinator proposal represents a continuation of the existing coordination module of the first funding phase and requests funding for the next 36 months. The priority program “InterZell” focuses on cell-to-cell interactions with mixed cultures, which should be used for the production of valuable compounds and for the successful transfer from lab to large-scale production processes.Activities within the coordination module comprise data management, the supervision of laboratory rotation, the organization of summer schools, the organization of kick-off meetings, status seminars and networking seminars, the organization of peer-to-peer education, the implementation of a successful “InterZell” self-organization, and outreaching reaching activities to the scientific community and also to the public via social media and social networks. The whole budget covers a period of 36 months including the funding of the coordinator assistant according to E13 (100%).

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Poland

Projects

• Cell-cell interaction in a synthetic co-culture: PHA production from sunlight and CO2 co-cultivating Synechococcus elongatus and Pseudomonas putida (Applicants Kremling, Andreas ;  Pflüger-Grau, Katharina )
• CHOLife+: Multiscale experimental analysis and simulation of lifelines in bioreactors to study their impact on the cultivation performance of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells (Applicants Schlüter, Michael ;  Takors, Ralf )
• CO2-based production of caproic acid by engineered Acetobacterium woodii and Clostridium drakei applying a synthetic co-culture (CaproSyn) (Applicants Bengelsdorf, Ph.D., Frank ;  Weuster-Botz, Dirk )
• Communities of niche-optimized strains (CoNoS) – a novel concept for improving biotechnological production of small molecules (Applicants Baumgart, Meike ;  Noack, Stephan )
• Control of mono-species and multi-species pellet heterogeneity and their implications on product formation in the cell factory Aspergillus niger (Applicants Briesen, Heiko ;  Meyer, Vera ;  Neubauer, Peter )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Takors, Ralf )
• Filamentous co-cultures: from screening to bioprocess development (Co-Pilot) (Applicants Agler-Rosenbaum, Miriam ;  Magnus, Jørgen )
• MiMiCry: Mimicking Nature by Continuous Production of Antimicrobials in Mixed Cultures of Synthetic Strains (Applicants Lindner-Mehlich, Steffen ;  Takors, Ralf )
• Production of ethyl-butyrate in a self-sufficient reaction cascade (Acronym PEBcascade) (Applicants Holtmann, Dirk ;  Ulber, Roland )
• ProPHet2Con: Towards control of population heterogeneity induced variations in process performance during L-phenylalanine production with Escherichia coli (Applicants Heins, Anna-Lena ;  Kremling, Andreas )
• SiMBal 2.0: Quantifying co-culture performance as a function of condition-dependent inter-cell mass exchange (Applicants Grünberger, Alexander ;  Kohlheyer, Dietrich ;  Schmid, Andreas )
• Synthetic coculture of Clostridium carboxidivorans and engineered Clostridium kluyveri for medium chain alcohol production from CO rich syngas (SynCoClos) (Applicants Liebl, Wolfgang ;  Weuster-Botz, Dirk )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Ralf Takors