About

The Division has extensive experience of microbial physiology research. The aim is to understand and control the metabolism of microbes in food and in industrial applications in order to enhance their fermentations and their metabolic properties. Genetic studies are combined with quantitative physiological studies to understand fundamental metabolic processes in these organisms. Mathematical and statistical models further strengthen their characterization at the metabolic level. In practice, the research of the laboratory is mainly focused on biofuels, biocatalysis, diagnostic PCR and food microbiology.

Due to advances in microbial physiology the total number of industrial cell-based processes has grown dramatically over the past decades and is expected to continue growing. The fermentation industry will continue to be in need of novel and improved production micro-organisms for use as cell factories. A number of societal and technological changes are expected to reinforce this trend, such as depletion of crude oil reserves, the increasing demand of a growing world population for raw materials and energy, the demand for sustainability and efficiency in chemical production systems and changes in the agricultural policy.

In the genome/post-genome era, biology is now changing from molecular biology to systems biology. Its potential for industrial application is truly enormous. We can expect a wealth of new ideas, and specific demands are expected from the above mentioned industries to develop microbial strains via the metabolic engineering approach to produce a wide range of useful chemicals from renewable raw materials, particularly carbohydrates. Thus, the industrial use of engineered whole cells is rapidly gaining priority in our society due to the demand for sustainable and environmental friendly processes.

Applied Microbiology has also extensive experience of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) research. The aim is to understand and control the metabolism of LAB to enhance their fermentations and their probiotic properties. The use of new techniques in functional genomics to characterize the health effects of foods and food components has great potential. Within this new interdisciplinary field, nutrigenomics, studies of technological and nutritional properties of beverages based on cereals, fruit, berries and milk are carried out. By developing and characterizing new safe and healthy foods nutrition science and food companies can contribute to the formation of new healthy life styles for consumers with different needs. Another important research area is food-borne microbial virulence. In order to formulate safe food, data about microbial virulence is required to complement already existing knowledge on microbial survival in food sources. Improved understanding of how environmental factors affect the microbial virulence expression in foods will enable us to formulate new strategies for food formulation, food preservation and risk assessment