Research

Our biological systems

Since our mission is to explore algal (metabolic) diversity, our repertoire of lab organisms includes algae from dry deserts, through the Arctics, to marine cyanobacteria, as we have shown that unique properties must exist in organisms that face and have to cope with extremes. Our current favourite is the desert alga Chlorella ohadii which we have isolated from the harsh Negev desert in Israel. This alga can survive and even thrives in extreme illumination levels where other algae and plants experience severe photodamage, but also, much to our surprise, exhibits the fastest growth rate ever reported for any eukaryotic alga. With such a story, no wonder this alga has already made the news several times (see below). These properties have made it an excellent and exciting new green model, supported by our expanding knowledge on its unique physiology, systems responses, and recently, also its published sequenced genome. A stable transformation system is still a challenge, and is one of the main items on our list for turning this alga into a full model. Beyond its value for basic research, C. ohadii bears a tremendous self-evident biotechnological potential and is currently being explored by our lab and others as a gene source for improving algal and plant properties - Chlorella ohadii, the green model you deserve.

As part of our synthetic biology focus, we also harness the great knowledge and powerful tools on the green algal model Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Except for providing a versatile genetic chassis (e.g. KO, KD, OE), Chlamydomonas is an optimal system for our metabolic engineering goals as it is relatively slow growing and sensitive to abiotic stress, offering a simpler readout in screening for novel traits. Thanks to our set of technological tools, our main strength lies in our ability to go beyond the ‘Black-box’ view of engineering phenotypes, and look into the metabolic network of engineered strains. This informed strategy improves our chances of reaching a desired phenotype or topology in a step-wise approach.

C. ohadii makes the news!

 https://www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2493685/what-we-can-learn-from-survivalists

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/940561

https://www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2704368/news_publication_18171816_transferred

https://communities.springernature.com/posts/green-gold-from-the-desert