Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory

About the laboratory

We engineer bacteria and their metabolic pathways for biotechnology and educate new generations of microbiologists/bioengineers at Masaryk University. Our long-term ambition is to link microbiology with molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics, and work on interdisciplinary projects that contribute to the basic knowledge of studied systems but also have significant application potential.

The main research topic of the laboratory is biodegradation, utilization, and biotechnological valorization of organic polymeric waste compounds, such as lignocellulosic residues or synthetic plastics, using engineered microorganisms. The safe robust strains of mesophilic or thermophilic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida, or Schlegelella thermodepolymerans are used as host organisms for harsh biocatalytic tasks.

For the purpose of more efficient utilization and valorization of carbohydrates from plant biomass or easier degradation of recalcitrant polymers, we modify bacteria and their biochemical pathways by modern methods of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and protein engineering. We also apply synthetic biology tools for the preparation of artificial bacterial consortia, which should perform the desired functions with higher efficiency and in a longer term than individual recombinant microorganisms.