PROGRESS & NEWS

Engineered green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a whole-cell photosynthetic biocatalyst for stepwise photoproduction of H2 and ε-caprolactone

Authors: Vilja Siitonen, Anna Probst, Gábor Tóth, Robert Kourist, Michael Schroda, Sergey Kosourov and Yagut Allahverdiyeva Short description: The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was used as a chassis for photobiotransformation of cyclohexanone to ε-caprolactone. In addition a stepwise production of molecular hydrogen and ε-caprolactone was achieved. Link to the publication: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3GC01400B

Mapping Nanocellulose- and Alginate-Based Photosynthetic Cell Factory Scaffolds: Interlinking Porosity, Wet Strength, and Gas Exchange

Authors: Tuukka Levä, Ville Rissanen, Lauri Nikkanen, Vilja Siitonen, Maria Heilala, Josphat Phiri, Thaddeus C. Maloney, Sergey Kosourov, Yagut Allahverdiyeva, Mikko Mäkelä and Tekla Tammelin Short description: We studied the rheology, porosity and gas transfer of nanocellulose- and alginate-based hydrogel matrices to develop our understanding on the dynamic properties of these materials as photosynthetic cell…

Publication: Photobiocatalytic Oxyfunctionalization with High Reaction Rate using a Baeyer–Villiger Monooxygenase from Burkholderia xenovorans in Metabolically Engineered Cyanobacteria

Authors: Elif Erdem, Lenny Malihan-Yap, Leen Assil-Companioni, Hanna Grimm, Giovanni Davide Barone, Carole Serveau-Avesque, Agnes Amouric, Katia Duquesne, Véronique de Berardinis, Yagut Allahverdiyeva, Véronique Alphand, and Robert Kourist. Link to the publication: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c04555

Snapshots of the year 2022 in FuturoLEAF

At the start of 2023, we thought it’s a perfect time to revisit all things FuturoLEAF from 2022! This year saw us meet face to face, together as a full consortium, for the first time since the start of the project. It’s safe to say that the pandemic made working together more difficult than it…

Times brings everything to those who wait

OMG, it is true that time flies by! The little story I would like to tell starts about 40 years ago when I, for the first time, got impressed by biology as a science. I was 12 years old and in the 6th class when our teacher in school told us about the magic efficiency…

Photosynthesis – the key to a sustainable future

Photosynthesis is one of the universally known terms from biology. Almost everyone is able to say that “That is the thing plants do.”, but there is much more to photosynthesis than one might think. But why is photosynthesis so important? Well, it was behind the Great Oxygenation Event, which made the development of life as…

Publication: Internal Illumination to Overcome the Cell Density Limitation in the Scale-up of Whole-Cell Photobiocatalysis

Authors: Markus Hobisch, Jelena Spasic, Dr. Lenny Malihan-Yap, Giovanni Davide Barone, Prof. Dr. Kathrin Castiglione, Prof. Dr. Paula Tamagnini, Prof. Dr. Selin Kara, Prof. Dr. Robert Kourist. Link to the publication: Internal Illumination to Overcome the Cell Density Limitation in the Scale‐up of Whole‐Cell Photobiocatalysis – Hobisch – 2021 – ChemSusChem – Wiley Online Library

Publication: Nanocellulose-based mechanically stable immobilization matrix for enhanced ethylene production: a framework for photosynthetic solid-state cell factories

Authors: V. Rissanen, S. Vajravel, S. Kosourov, S. Arola, E. Kontturi, Y. Allahverdiyeva and T. Tammelin. Link to the publication: Nanocellulose-based mechanically stable immobilization matrix for enhanced ethylene production: a framework for photosynthetic solid-state cell factories – Green Chemistry (RSC Publishing)

Publication: Photosynthetic hydrogen production: Novel protocols, promising engineering approaches and application of semi-synthetic hydrogenases

Authors: Sergey Kosourov, Maximilian Böhm, Moritz Senger, Gustav Berggren, Karin Stensjö, Fikret Mamedov, Peter Lindblad, Yagut Allahverdiyeva. Link to the publication: Photosynthetic hydrogen production: Novel protocols, promising engineering approaches and application of semi‐synthetic hydrogenases – Kosourov – 2021 – Physiologia Plantarum – Wiley Online Library

Why the FuturoLEAF research is important?

For a researcher it is always important to realise why our work is important. We often focus on our work so much that sometimes we lose the big picture. The devil is really in the details when you do research, yet the justification for the work is in the greater good. In FuturoLEAF, the big…

FuturoLEAF successfully started

23.9.2020 kick-off meeting The kick-off meeting of FuturoLEAF project was celebrated on September 23rd 2020 on-line, due to the pandemic, hosted by the project Coordinator VTT. Participants from all partners were engaged in a lively discussion despite the lack of face-to-face contact. In the meeting, the project overview and EU requirements we discussed along with…