Project

Gene cluster identification and microbial biosynthesis of iminosugars (IMINOGENE)

Acronym
IMINOGENE
Code
3S001422
Duration
01 October 2021 → 30 September 2025
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Metabolomics
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Analysis of next-generation sequence data
    • Synthetic biology
  • Engineering and technology
    • Industrial microbiology
Keywords
synthetic biology carbohydrates metabolic engineering
 
Project description

The “IMINOGENE” project focuses on the sustainable and microbial production of specialty carbohydrates useful in human and animal welfare as well as in the agro-industry. These specialty carbohydrates are currently often discovered in plants and are little investigated with regard to their microbial natural sources. Therefore, in the IMINOGENE project, the microbial biosynthesis blueprints are unraveled with advanced bioinformatics tools and screening . Once those blueprints have been uncovered, microbial production strains are created through synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. New target compounds are furthermore identified in this project by screening a compound library to unlock their application potential. As currently these specialty carbohydrates are produced inefficiently through complex chemical synthesis or extraction, this project aims to reinvigorate the interest in these compounds by providing a sustainable and scalable alternative through microbial fermentation.