Modern Biotechnology is everywhere
Blog Categories
“Smart-factories” for continuous downstream processing of antibodies
Antibodies are an important part of our immune system and work by recognizing potential hazards entering the body, such as bacteria and viruses, and activating an immune response if necessary. Antibodies that are produced in the laboratory, so called monoclonal antibodies, are widely used in modern medicine for diagnostics as well as for treating infections and some types of cancer, e.g. breast cancer.
Vom heimischen Schrebergarten zum europäischen Forschungsinnovationsfeld
Im acib-Interview gibt Marko Mihovilovic, Dekan an der Fakultät für Technische Chemie an der Technischen Universität Wien, Einblick in die Zukunft der Life Sciences Fortbildungen und zeichnet den Weg nach, wie aus einer Idee mithilfe tragfähiger Synergien zwischen Forschung und Industrie ein innovatives Produkt entsteht. Laut Mihovilovic müssen Universitäten auch dem Aufrag nachkommen, Problemlösekapazitäten in Bereichen wie dem Klimawandel zu entwickeln, um nicht zuletzt dem angeschlagenen Image der Chemie einen grüneren Anstrich zu verleihen.
Emerging Technologies on Biocatalysis
The climate crisis is on everyone’s lips! The chemical industry plays an important role in finding more efficient measures for industrial production processes. Most recently, the Ukraine crisis has also caused that quick solutions are urgently needed for independence from fossil resources. In this context, the keyword “green chemistry” quickly comes to our mind.
The environmental and economic impact of enzymatic plastic recycling
Despite being a promising technology, enzymatic plastic recycling is still in the development phase. This means that it is not yet clear whether this recycling method will have the required characteristics for effectively replace traditional mechanical methods or even complement them. In fact, in order to be successful on the market, a technology needs to be economically viable in the first place and secondly its environmental footprint needs to be significantly lower compared to the state-of-the-art. Techno-economic and life cycle assessments are the tools used both in academia and industry precisely to evaluate the performance of new technologies like the one we are developing at Enzycle.
Wissenschaft trifft Alltag
Der Verlauf der Pandemie hat es uns deutlich gezeigt: in der Gesellschaft hat sich starke Wissenschaftsskepsis breit gemacht, und Österreich nimmt dabei eine unrühmliche Rolle im Spitzenfeld ein. Aussagen wie „Wissenschaftler sind abhängig von der Pharmalobby“, „Wissenschaft ist mir zu kompliziert“ oder „Wissenschaft betrifft mich nicht“ tauchen immer öfter auf.
Fermenting Futures: A recap on “Yeast technology meets art”
The art exhibition “Fermenting Futures” at Künstlerhaus Wien came to an end and it’s time to recap and draw conclusions on the impressions left with the audience. After all, the goal of the event was to emphasize on the importance of yeast in modern biotechnology and highlight on how tightly entangled the history of humankind and this unicellular organism used to be, but most importantly how it continues to be.
Bionanopolys goes Austria!
Anfang April lud acib zum österreichischen Stakeholderevent aus dem Open Innovation Test-Bed (OITB) Projekt Bionanopolys ein. acib ist Mitglied in diesem 27 Partner starken Projektkonsortium, das sich mit der Entwicklung von bio-basierten Nanomaterialen beschäftigt.
Food for Climate
What does food have to do with climate change? Quite a lot, because as population density increases, so does the demand for food. At the same time, resources are being consumed, posing even greater challenges to our environment and climate. With its “Food 2030” priority, the European Union is pursuing the goal of ensuring innovative research for the future viability of our food system. Within the framework of its research program, acib GmbH already contributes to the development of suitable solutions for sustainable and healthy nutrition.
Continuous downstream production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, a family of biodegradable plastics
Plastic materials are products of our daily life. Their various properties make them useful in many fields, such as packaging industry. Since the emergence of the Green Chemistry and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) concepts, many scientists have decided to engage in the development of greener chemistry to produce greener plastics. Among these, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a very serious avenue of research.
Econutri: CO2 for proteins
What if you could produce something valuable out of the pesky greenhouse gases?
What if you could even use them to tackle important global challenges? This is exactly the mission of acib’s spin-off company Econutri.
The small company has developed a bioprocess that uses carbon dioxide as a source to produce high quality protein. A crucial part of this process is the microorganism, Cupriavidus necator: it is grown in a gas fermentation process where hydrogen produced from green energy is needed for the microbial transformation of CO2 into protein.