Microbial community modeling for the production of ‘designer’ yogurt
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Bas Teusink, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Molecular Cell Biology, HES, The Netherlands
Consortium:
Heidelberg University, Modeling of Biological Processes, HES, Germany
University of Stuttgart, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, HES, Germany
University of Tartu, Institute of Technology, HES, Estonia
Chr. Hansen A/S, Bacterial Physiology and Improvement (BactoPhI), LE, Denmark
Project Abstract
Yogurt is made by two microorganisms that compete for nutrients but help each other by cross feeding at the same time; these complex interactions make it difficult for industry to predict yogurt properties when fdifferent strains are combined. We use a systems biology approach to understand the nature of the interactions and to make models that can help in predicting the behaviour of mixtures of yogurt behaviour. Since in nature -and certainly in biotechnological applications- most bacteria interact with other bacteria, the insights and methods generated by this project will be translatable to other many other cases.
YogurtDesign is funded by the ERA CoBioTech partners: ETAg, BMBF, NWO and co-funded by the European Union.
Project Start: June 2018 Duration: 36 months
Project Budget: Total Cost: 1.023.000 Euro, Funding: 946.000 Euro
Project Website: http://yoghurt.bioquant.uni-heidelberg.de/projects/1
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HES – higher education sector – university
LE – large enterprise