Strategic Focus Areas
Six cross-departmental strategic focus areas drive the department's strategic development, enhancing its research profile, fostering collaboration across research sections, and increasing research visibility. These focus areas also support efforts to address global health and environmental challenges aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
AI-Assisted High-Throughput Technologies and Automation
This research area is co-developed with the DTU Arena for Life Science Automation (DALSA), serving as a co-creation space for public and private entities to develop essential automation solutions in R&D and production technology that are currently not available. Interdisciplinary research projects involve experts in biotechnology, mechanics, electronics, and data analysis, fostering a unique collaboration forum. As technologies and workflows are developed, they are transferred to DALSA's user facility and the department's laboratories to enhance research activities and promote a cultural transition towards data-driven, high-throughput, and robotics-assisted biotechnology.
Cell-free Biosolutions
Cell-free Biosolutions focuses on designing cell-free synthetic enzyme pathways for biomanufacturing and cell-free protein synthesis. The implementation of synthetic enzyme pathways to achieve specific conversions and products is already underway. A new effort is the cell-free protein synthesis with design of individual biological components and engineering of the steps involved in the protein synthesis.
Fungi as a Bioresource
There is significant potential for screening the IBT Culture Collection for new enzymes, bioactive small molecules, and fungal chassis capable of utilizing side streams, including strains for food applications. Plans include expanding the collection with new isolates, initiating a large whole-genome sequencing project, and enhancing unique phenotypical datasets. High-throughput capabilities will be further developed through add-on robotic workflows for ex. enzyme screening and assessing cell factory potential.
Microbiome Engineering
The microbiome research area focuses on engineering microbiomes for environmental applications, including soil, water, wastewater treatment, plant rhizospheres, marine, and aquaculture systems. Microbiomes are primarily sourced from environmental origins, with additional insights drawn from expertise in the human gut microbiome when relevant.The purpose is to engineer microbiomes to perform specific biotechnological functions, such as degrading complex biomass or producing a mixture of compounds for plant biocontrol. Reductionist experimental systems are developed to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms driving microbiome dynamics in various environments.
Novel Antimicrobials
To address the current antimicrobial resistance crisis, this research area will focus on bio-prospecting microbiomes for novel compounds or principles with drug potential, including novel antibiotics and mixtures of antibiotics. The research area will specifically develop molecules with targeted anti-virulence compounds. It will also create novel technologies to access and collect DNA from hard-to-cultivate microbes (microbial dark matter) and express desired functions in specially designed cell factories. Leveraging expertise in antibody design, the area will utilize single-domain antibodies to target and inactivate specific virulence factors in pathogenic microorganisms.