Representative research projects, ex. 2: Research consortium CEFOX

The joint research project CEFOX (Cell-free synthesis of fungal biocatalysts for the production of biobased ingredients, FKZ 031B0831, 2020-2023, continuation announced until 2026) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the program "Tailor-made biobased ingredients for a competitive bioeconomy" (https://biooekonomie.de/massgeschneiderte-biobasierte-inhaltsstoffe-fuer-eine-wettbewerbsfaehige-biooekonomie) and coordinated by BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (Prof. K. Scheibner, Chair of Enzyme Technology). In addition to the BTU and the IHI Zittau, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI-BB) in Potsdam and the companies JenaBios and Chiracon (Luckenwalde) are involved in the research network. The main objective of the project at the interface of White and Red Biotechnology is the development of new synthesis tools for obtaining exceptional fungal enzymes (peroxygenases, bifunctional glycosidases) without living cells. The target proteins are to be expressed cell-free, i.e. in vitro "in the test tube" using isolated ribosomes (organelles of protein synthesis), and molecularly engineered/tailored. The enzymes obtained should help to overcome existing bottlenecks in the production of terpenoid active ingredients (including modified steroids) and biomass-based building blocks (including derivatized fatty acids). At IHI Zittau, genome sequencing, comparative phylogenetic analyses, protein modeling (Fig. 4) as well as biochemical and enzymatic
studies are performed in this context.