Bioeconomy

The International Environmental Award was awarded to Professor Klaus Kümmerer from the Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg in Stockholm on Sunday 18th October 2009.

Article - 12/10/2009

Brückner – Global market leader in film stretching technology

Brückner Maschinenbau has been doing pioneering work in film stretching technology for around 50 years. With a market share of over 50%, Brückner is the worldwide leader in this area. About 600 Brückner lines are used all over the world. All the major international film producers in Europe, USA, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia appear in the company’s customer list.

Dossier - 12/10/2009

A green view - plant genome research

Research into the plant genome reveals many fundamental mechanisms some of which are also found in animals and human beings. Research increases the possibility of application in particular for the improvement of food animal feed and energy plants. However there is more to it than just transgenic plants.

Article - 28/09/2009

BioLog – bioplastics made from crayfish

BioLog GmbH, based in Landsberg, is developing bioplastics from chitin, a natural biopolymer extracted from the exoskeleton of crustaceans such as shrimps and crabs. Chitin is modified to chitosan, which can be used for many applications, including for wastewater treatment and as animal feed.

Article - 24/09/2009

Bacteria to produce bioplastics

Polyhydroxyalkanoates are storage substances produced and stored by many cells plants and bacteria only in times when they lack lack important nutrients. A particular property of these plastics-related biopolymers is that their composition and hence their material properties can be regulated by the fermentation process.

Article - 24/09/2009

Making sense of a huge conglomeration of base pairs

Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski and his team at the University of Freiburg have made considerable contributions to the analysis of the genome of the moss Physcomitrella patens. However the researchers are aware that the base pair sequence still has many gaps and errors. But how do the researchers manage to navigate around the chaos of millions of letters base pairs and sentence fragments DNA fragments?

The high-yield cultivation of maize has for a long time since been unthinkable without hybrid plant breeding. The phenomenon used by plant breeders to achieve high crop yields nevertheless harbours many secrets. Science is using the methods of modern genome research to solve the mystery of heterosis in order to speed up hybrid plant breeding and establish heterosis in many other agriculturally important crop species.

The success of plant breeders is no longer to be left to chance. Scientists at the University of Hohenheim are working hard on the development of tools for predictable plant breeding. Using genome analyses, the researchers hope to discover sought-after genes in order to enable plant breeders to select the plant properties they require in a time- and cost-saving way.

Dossier - 18/09/2009

From plants to plastics

In these times of changing climate sustainable thinking and the growing desire to become less dependent on crude oil the interest in biobased plastics is growing. Biobased plastics can be either entirely or partially produced from renewable resources using biotechnological methods.

Press release - 18/09/2009

How a water plant can save its “skin”

Biologist Dr. Elisabeth Groß is investigating the complicated defence mechanisms of a water plant water milfoil. The plant uses these defence mechanisms to save its skin from herbivore attacks and to make life difficult for competing algae.

Article - 18/09/2009

Patents promote creativity and motivation

The protection of innovations and patents is an important issue for Stockach- based Sensovation AG in terms of the companys proprietary developments. According to Paul Hing Chief Technology Officer of the company which develops and manufactures intelligent detection systems Sensovation has already filed three patents and further ideas for potential patents are currently being evaluated. But how does a medium-sized medical device company such as…

Article - 10/09/2009

Chaperone research using baker’s yeast and bacteria

Protein misfolding and aggregation can lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. Prof. Elke Deuerling at the University of Constance is investigating the molecular helpers the chaperones and the key role that they have in protein folding. Deuerling uses the bakers yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the bacterium Eschericia coli for her studies. Her studies involving E. coli have now shown that ribosome-associated chaperones are…

Press release - 09/09/2009

“Road trip” to the Lake Constance

American scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute JCVI have recently visited the Institute of Limnology at the University of Constance at Lake Constance. The visit was part of the Sorcerer II Expedition which is a unique global mission to sample and discover the diversity of microorganisms and their role in global substance flows.

Press release - 04/09/2009

Motivation impetus for researcher on bacteria

Dirk Linke 37 has been awarded the Advancement Award of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie DGHM. The award includes prize money of 2500 Euro and will be presented on September 20th 2009 during the 61st Annual Meeting of the DGHM in Göttingen.

Article - 01/09/2009

POLYFEA – a strong partner in compostable plastics

The company POLYFEA Polymer- und Produktentwicklung, based in the southern Black Forest (Germany), offers consulting for and contract development of polymer-based materials and products. Using the biodegradable material system CAPROWAX P, the company has successfully developed an innovative product.

Article - 27/08/2009

From model organism to a model family

For many decades, the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) has served as an excellent model for biologists. However, in the future it may also be joined by cruciferous plants (Brassicaceae) serving as a model. A few years ago, the plant physiologist Dr. Gerhard Leubner and his team at the University of Freiburg discovered that garden cress (Lepidium sativum) was an excellent model for their research on germinating seeds. This small plant with its…

In order for a company to make efficient use of its potential and its specific skills it must focus on its own core competences and on the cooperation with other companies that have supplementary skills. This is all the more important in economically difficult times when investors and banks tend to shy away from investments. The implementation of cooperations between companies raises a number of general issues as well as specific issues relating…

Article - 17/08/2009

The source of biomass – young people experience this agricultural energy source

A biomass action day was recently organised at the Unterer Lindenhof experimental station in order to show schoolchildren a number of features of different agricultural products that fuel that is made from rape seed is capable of taking them from Egypt to South Africa that the use of wood for heating houses is very ecological and that various plant oils can taste very differently. This action day was made possible thanks to the Hohenheim…

Press release - 05/08/2009

University of Hohenheim to supply optimised biogas facilities to Tanzania

Several years ago, development workers attempted to supply rural households in the Kagera region of Tanzania with biogas. However, the project failed because the technology was not fully developed and was not properly adapted to the regional conditions. Now, the association “Engineers Without Borders” is setting out to correct past mistakes, together with students from the University of Hohenheim.

Press release - 29/07/2009

Second roundtable discussions dealing with plant genetics

“Today, we have made good progress. The talks were very focused and intensive,” said the German Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan, summarising what had been achieved at the second green genetic engineering roundtable in Berlin attended by invited representatives from science, the agricultural and food industries, environmental associations and churches.

Dossier - 16/07/2009

Patents – the exploitations of inventions in the life sciences

According to statistics from the European Patent Office a total of 1065 biotechnological patents were filed in 2007 by inventors based in Germany. This puts Germany second behind the USA. In the coming years experts expect that a much larger number of biotech patents will be filed. For life sciences inventors the registration of patents quite often represents a real challenge. People entering the world of patents and licences are faced with a…

Article - 15/07/2009

The gap in the value creation chain

On a national level the University of Freiburg comes out reasonably well in comparison with other universities regarding the number of patents filed and licensed. But is it enough to protect an intellectual property and sell it to a company? No says Prof. Dr. Bernhard Arnolds from the Central Office of Research Funding and Technology Transfer at the University of Freiburg.

Article - 01/07/2009

KIT - Competence in bioprocess engineering

The purification of microbially produced substances such as proteins and polysaccharides and their separation from or release from within the cell are complex tasks in the field of biotechnology. The Bioprocess Engineering department of the Institute of Process Engineering in the Life Sciences TH deals with the development of integrated bioprocesses and is also involved in the separation of biopolymers.

Press release - 29/06/2009

Successful network conference of the Biopolymers/Biomaterials Cluster

There was a varied programme for the participants of the Biopolymers/Biomaterials Cluster network conference. Speakers from a broad range of different sectors talked about innovative biomaterials as well as cluster development.

Article - 24/06/2009

The initiation of replication – only once, please

DNA replication is a critical event in the cell division process. The genetic material must only be replicated once. So, how does a bacterial cell ensure that only one single replication occurs and that the process is not repeated several times? Microbiologists under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Peter Graumann from the Institute of Biology II in Freiburg, in cooperation with international cooperation partners from Paris, have deciphered a…