Research and development in the field of Marine Biotechnology

Marine microorganisms are a prolific resource of new technical enzymes and pharmacologically active agents or lead structures. Their special living conditions and functions in the ecosystem force them to produce a vast number of enzymes with unique activities and bioactive metabolites with new structures.

Main Topics

Bioactive compounds

  • Screening and characterisation of cyanobacteria and marine fungi producing substances with antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytostatic, immunomodulatory or enzyme inhibitory properties
  • Isolation, structure elucidation and analysis of bioactive compounds
  • cultivation of marine microorganisms
  • Target analyses (Proteomics)

Cold-adapted enzymes

  • Screening of psychrophilic microorganisms with cold-adapted enzymatic activities
  • Cloning and expression of cold-adapted enzymes

Enzyme production processes

  • Development of bacterial expression systems for the overproduction of thermolabile or insoluble enzymes
  • Optimisation of bacterial fermentation processes
  • Quality control of recombinant enzymes by proteomics