Industrial Biotechnology

Strain- and enzyme screening

• Investigation of terrestrial, marine and animal habitats
• Screening of enrichmentcultures
• Isolation of strains
• Creating and examining genomic databases from microorganisms

Strain development

• Creation of vectors (fusion proteins for purification, secretion, immune assays)
• Metabolic engineering: knock out or overexpression of genes
• Overexpression of enzymes in pro- and eucaryotic systems

Bioprocess technology

• Investigation of decomposition processes of raw materials (chitin, lignocellulose) with combinations of mechanical, enzymatic and high pressure process (organosolv, aquasolv)
• Development and optimization of enzyme conversion procedures, batch processes in stirred tank or continuous processes in fixed bed reactors
• Investigation and optimization of batch and controlled fed batch processes for the increase in the space-time yield
• Development of capable scale-up fermentation processes 
• Contract fermentation for the production of biomass, enzymes, or metabolites up to 30-L scale under S1 and S2 conditions
• Development of purification methods (normal phase chromatography, precipitation, precipitation, solvent extraction)

Screening instruments

• Pick robot
• Screening reactors (2-20-mL-scale, 24fold-system)

Molecular biology

• Thermocycler for PCR
• Gelelectrophoresis (native gels, SDS-PAGE, agarose)

Equipment for parallel synthesis

• Temperature-controlled shaker for 24 parallel batches (2 to 20 mL scale)
• Temperature-controlled stirring system for 6 parallel batches (30 to 200 mL scale)

Incubators

• Various temperature-controlled incubators incubation shakers

Reactors and process technology

• Enzyme reactors
  
• Fixed bed reactor (adsorber and immobilized enzymes)
• Multi fermenter facility for 8 parallel batches (1.2-liter scale, S2)
• Small scale fermenter (up to 3.6-liter scale, S2)
• Technical scale fermenter (42 liters, S2)
• Process control system for control of fed-batch feeding strategies and processes with RQ control (exhaust gas analyzers)

Disintegration equipment

• High pressure reactors (1 L), e.g. for disintegration of biomass
• Inline disperser

Downstream Processing

• Acid chromatographic purification for non-polar metabolites (normal phase)
• Rotary evaporator
• Crossflow filtration units
     

Analysis  

• Automatic DC
• HPLC with RI-, UV- and ELSD detectors
• Multiwell-Reader