Two research groups at Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with counterparts in Albert-Ludwigs-University and Ruhr University Bochum in Germany have been approved to conduct two Joint Research Projects by Sino-German Center for Research Promotion on March 25, 2013.

The joint project “Hydrocarbon production in genetically engineered cyanobacteria” will carry out three research tasks including (1) screen enzymes with higher catalytic efficiency by directed evolution; (2) screen the suitable promoters for over-expression of hydrocarbon-producing pathway genes; (3) identify the regulators responsible for gene expression pattern under different culture conditions. This project, collaborated by Prof. LU Xuefeng from Metabolic Engineering Group at QIBEBT and Prof. Wolfgang Hess from Faculty of Biology at Albert-Ludwigs-University, will improve the production efficiency of hydrocarbons in cyanobacteria so to improve cyanobacteria potential for biotechnology applications and biofuels production.

Another joint project “Development of a novel single-cell omics platform for the investigation of microbial population heterogeneity during stress adaptation” is to develop a single-cell omics platform to investigate the microbial population heterogeneity on the single cell level during adaptation and evolution, via multidisciplinary integration of bioinformatics, single-cell technology, and biochemistry. This project, collaborated by Asso. Prof. NING Kang from Functional Genomics Group at QIBEBT will provide substantially new insight into fundamental physiological processes in microorganisms as well as to accelerate the development of superior strains for industrial biotechnology by fast screening of genotypes and phenotypes of microbial populations.

The two joint research projects are the concrete cooperation following the Sino-German Symposium on Metabolic Engineering & Advanced Biofuels jointly hosted by the QIBEBT and Technical University Munich in June 2012.