New strategies for efficient development of microbial bioprocesses

This project is a collaboration between SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Department of Biotechnology, the Department of Biotechnology at NTNU and Alpharma AS. The project builds on the existing competence among the project partners in developing industrial bioprocesses and will make use of state of the art laboratories at SINTEF and NTNU for cultivation, high throughput screening and analyses. These laboratories are especially well suited for the proposed project using transcriptomics and metabolomics data in combination with high throughput screening for bioprocess development. The aim of the project is to establish new competence and technology for efficient microbial bioprocess development based on modern theoretical and experimental tools. As a concep tual model we will use the technology to study aminoglycoside antibiotic production in the industrially important strain Streptomyces tenebrarius. The entire genome of the S. tenebrarius will be sequenced and we will use this information as basis in the project. The rational of the project is to use transcriptome and metabolome data as a hypothesis generating tool and show how this information can be used to improve antibiotic production by construction of recombinant strains and optimization of cultiva tion conditions. The outcome of the project will be establishment of competence and a research strategy how to use modern omics technology in bioprocess development applicable for any commercially interesting microorganism. Much of the modern omics tech nology is generic and transferable to any microorganisms. Hence, the technology and competence achieved in this project will strengthen the position of industrial biotechnology research and development in Norway.