Industrial Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology

News

2024

Doctoral student of the Double Degree Programme leaves us

Today, on 29 April, AnDy, who was our guest for three months as part of the DoubleDegree programme, is leaving us. She is writing her doctoral thesis in Prof. Dr. Shuji Akai's group at Osaka University about the synthesis and modification of atropisomeric compounds for drug discovery. We are looking forward to your second stay in our group!
You can find more information about the DoubleDegree programme here.

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2023

Acquire a doctorate at two universities

The chemistry between the two cooperation partners is right, as evidenced by a long-standing agreement on academic cooperation and student exchange between Bielefeld University and Osaka University in Japan. Based on this general agreement, Bielefeld University has now concluded a further agreement that defines the framework conditions for the implementation of joint doctoral programmes. This will benefit not only the researchers, but also the students in particular, who will be able to obtain two related doctoral degrees, for example through joint doctoral procedures and the opportunity to conduct research at both universities. The Faculty of Chemistry initiated this agreement and will now carry out the first joint doctoral procedures!
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2022

Visiting Professorship at Osaka University Awarded to Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger

The CeBiTec-member Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger from the Chair of Industrial Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology has been awarded a Visiting Professorship at Osaka University, which will consist of two planned stays in Osaka during September/October 2022 and March 2023. A particular focus of this visiting professorship is the intensification of the research collaborations with various colleagues from Osaka University. Among research collaborations with colleagues from Osaka University are the longstanding collaborations with the researc group of Professor Dr. Hiroaki Sasai on vanadium catalysis as well as with the research group of Professor Dr. Shuji Akai on chemoenzymatic synthesis. In this joint collaboration with the group of Prof. Akai, recently the first example of a dynamic kinetic resolution of a tertiary alcohol has been successfully demonstrated.
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DFG-Funding for CeBiTec-research with Technical University of Hamburg towards a biocatalytic sustainable synthesis of pharma-related β-hydroxy α-amino acids

Enantiomerically pure α-amino acids play an important role in today’s pharmaceutical industry since these compounds serve as valuable chiral key building blocks for the synthesis of modern active pharmaceutical ingredients. Many of them are already produced by means of biocatalysis. However, the access to more complex, non-proteinogenic β-hydroxy substituted α-amino acids bearing two stereogenic centers, which are of interest for production of a range of pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, still represents a challenge and a biocatalytic approach to those molecules on large industrial scale has not been realized yet. This “white spot” on the “map of enzymatically produced amino acids” is now to be targeted jointly by the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis (ITB) at Hamburg University of Technology being headed by Professor Dr. Andreas Liese and the Chair of Industrial Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology (IOCB) at Bielefeld University headed by Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger as CeBiTec member in a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The two research groups are collaborating intensively since more than a decade on various research topics in the field of biocatalysis and sustainable organic synthesis.
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11th International CeBiTec Research Conference Bielefeld on intensification of biocatalytic processes

From March 28-30, 2022, the 11th international CeBiTec Conference being entitled “Intensifying Biocatalytic Processes – From Enzyme and Material Design to Industrial Applications” (IBPRO2022) took place as a “hybrid event” at the ZiF building. This conference was jointly organized by the EU-Project (H2020-MSCA-ITN) “INTERfaces” (in which the CeBiTec is also involved with a research project) with Prof. Dr. Selin Kara (Aarhus University) as a coordinator and the research group “Industrial Organic Chemistry and Biotechnology” as a member of the CeBiTec. We were happy to welcome about 60 participants in presence and further ca. 45 participants who joined the conference in the online mode.
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Retirement of our colleague Heinz-Werner Patruck

On 28th of February 2022 our colleague Heinz-Werner was released into well-deserved retirement. He was active in mass spectrometry for the faculty of chemistry as well as in the EDP and IT department of the IOCB chair. For his farewell, which had to take place online due to the current SARS-CoV2 situation, he still told the story of how he was invited for an interview at Bielefeld University more than ten years ago. He had just been on vacation on the island of Rügen and had to travel back by train to get there. We are glad that Heinz-Werner broke off his vacation at that time and that we were able to gain such a great colleague. We thank Heinz-Werner for his many years of reliable work. No problem was too big for him that he could not solve with his passion and ambition. We now let him go with one laughing and one crying eye and wish him all the best for the future.

2021 and before

Development of bio-based plasticizers based on biorenewable feedstocks together with Hamburg University of Technology and BASF SE within a BMBF-funded research project

In cooperation with the research group of Prof. Dr. Andreas Liese from Hamburg University of Technology and the chemical company BASF SE, our research group has developed a novel-type of sustainable plasticizers based on renewable raw materials. Today, in total more than nine million metric tons of plasticizers are produced worldwide each year, and the product class of phthalates accounts for more than half of the manufacturing volume. At the same time, such phthalates are produced from fossil feedstocks. In addition, some of the phthalate-based plasticizers pose health risks by, for example, affecting the hormone balance in humans. These health risks led to the regulation of certain representatives of this class of substances in the EU. The new generation of plasticizers developed jointly by the project partners is derived from renewable sources such as, for example, sugar-based waste streams. Thus, this approach fulfills the principle of a circular economy. In addition, for the synthesis of the new plasticizer molecules straightforward and atom-economical reaction technologies were utilized such as, e.g., the Diels-Alder reaction. Initial application tests of the plasticizer showed promising performance data in many respects. This research project “BioPlasticizers” was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with around 600,000 euros, and these results have now been published in the journal European Journal of Organic Chemistry, which lists this article as an outstanding study ("Very Important Paper").
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Dr. Alessa Hinzmann awarded Dissertation Prize 2020

On the 7th of September 2021 Dr. Alessa Hinzmann from our working group has been awarded with the Dissertation Prize 2020 of the Universitätsgesellschaft Bielefeld (UGBi) for her PhD thesis on "Chemoenzymatic cascade reactions towards aliphatic nitriles and amines starting from biorenewable resources" for the Faculty of Chemistry. The dissertation prizes have been awarded annually since 1983 and are sponsored by companies from the region. The prize for the Faculty of Chemistry was sponsored by STOCKMEIER Holding GmbH. Our research group congratulates Alessa most cordially on this award: Many congratulations, Alessa!
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Dr. Nadine Zumbrägel awarded "GDCh-Prize for Biocatalysis"

Our former doctoral student Dr. Nadine Zumbrägel, who is currently working in the research unit "Biotransformation" at Bayer AG, was awarded with the "GDCh Prize for Biocatalysis" honouring her exceptional work in the field of combination of heterocyclic chemistry and biocatalysis exemplified for the enantioselective synthesis of heterocyclic amines using imine reductases. Nadine is the first awardee of this newly established "GDCh Prize for Biocatalysis" for outstanding dissertations in the field of biocatalysis. The award ceremony has been held online today within the virtual GDCh Science Forum 2021 (GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2021). Our research group congratulates Nadine most cordially on this award: Many congratulations, Nadine!

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Development of a new process for the production of the plant metabolite cis ‐(+)‐12‐OPDA

Our workgroup developed in cooperation with Prof. Karl Josef Dietz a process for the synthesis of cis-(+)-12-oxophytodienoic acid (cis ‐(+)‐12-OPDA) in a one-pot system with 99% conversion and 90% selectivity. Cis ‐(+)‐12-OPDA is a central precursor of jasmonic acid. The developed process is based on the principle from plant cells, where enzymes catalyze the synthesis of cis ‐(+)‐12-OPDA starting from simple fatty acid. During stress regulation, plants produce oxylipins such as the hormone jasmonic acid. These oxylipins are responsible for defence reactions after wounding or pathogen infestation and essential in the production of plants. In addition to the role in signal transduction in plants, jasmonic acid is a very important ingredient in the perfume industry. A current research question is whether biological precursors and derivatives of jasmonic acid lead to similar or different metabolic effects. But for detailed studies, such compounds have so far been too expensive and difficult to obtain. The new developed process could make the production of cis ‐(+)‐12‐OPDA as well as its derivatives more efficient and cost-effective. Article

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13th International CeBiTec Symposium “Multi-Step Syntheses in Biology & Chemistry - An International Young Investigator Conference”

Biocatalysis is one of the key technologies, that will shape not only the industrial landscape, but also our daily lives in the future. This interdisciplinary field of research, which combines biology and chemistry, opens great perspectives for basic research as well as industrial applications. This was part of the occasion of the 13th International CeBiTec Symposium “Multi-Step Syntheses in Biology & Chemistry - An International Young Investigator Conference” that was held at Bielefeld University on December 2019. Head speakers have been Prof. Shuji Akai from the Osaka University in Japan, Dr. Daniel Fitzpatrick from the University of Cambridge, Prof. Julia Frunzke from the Research center Jülich and Dr. Matthias Höhne from the University of Greifswald. Fields of tailor-made bio-catalyst design and applications thereof, combination of biocatalysis and chemocatalysis and synthetic biology towards multi-step syntheses from both, an academic and industrial perspective, were part of this symposium. In addition, emerging recent trends mostly done so far out of the area of biocatalysis, which, however, are expected to have a strong impact on biocatalysis in the future will be addressed such as, for example, flow-chemistry, machine learning self-automatization. A further focus of this symposium were contributions of young researchers to present their research achievements and latest results in the plenum as well as lectures and poster presentations. They had the opportunity to present their work and to discuss on the future prospects of biocatalysis in order to promote the networking of the next generation of biocatalysis researchers.

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Participation at International Conference on Green Chemistry (ISGC)

Two PhD students of our group, namely Michael Stricker and Alessa Hinzmann, attended the International Conference on Green Chemistry 2019 (ISGC) in La Rochelle, France. Alessa Hinzmann had the opportunity to give an oral presentation on TEMPO-oxidation in alternative solvent, while Michael Stricker presented a poster on TEMPO-oxidation of primary diols. The ISGC is one of the biggest conferences within Green Chemistry and covers all topics of Sustainable Chemistry in industry and academia. Overall around 600 participants were present, 300 talks and 200 posters were presented.

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Annual Biotechnology Lecture at Toyama Prefectural University

Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger was kindly invited to give the "Annual Lecture of the Biotechnology Research Center" for the year 2018 at Toyama Prefectural University. This lecture was held on Friday, December 14, 2018, and the photo attached shows Prof. Dr. Yasuhisa Asano, Director in the Biotechnology Research Center of Toyama Prefectural University, and Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger with the lecture announcement. "This invitation represents a great honor, for which I am very grateful as well as for the kind hospitality during my stay in Toyama", says Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger on the occasion of this annual lecture presentation.

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Safety Production of Nylon

The plastic nylon is omnipresent. Whether umbrellas, tights or kitchen utensils: what they all have in common is that they are made of nylon. To produce nylon, the industry needs the chemical adiponitrile - more than one million tonnes worldwide every year. Highly toxic hydrogen cyanide is still used to produce adiponitrile. Chemists at Bielefeld University want to change this. Today (30 November 2018) in the journal Nature Communications, they present a method that uses an enzyme instead of hydrogen cyanide to produce this compound. In combination with other processes, this biocatalysis reaction opens up the prospect of producing the nylon precursor from carbon dioxide and sunlight in an environmentally friendly way in the future. Article

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"Green Chemistry"

"Metathesis in water conducted by tailor-made encapsulated Grubbs' catalyst" - behind these technical terms lies not only the title of a specialist article, but also a successful collaboration between Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (FH Bielefeld) and Bielefeld University. The article is a joint publication by doctoral student Jan Pauly and his supervisors Prof. Dr Anant Patel (Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. Dr Harald Gröger (Bielefeld University) on the encapsulation of a chemical catalyst in biopolymer hydrogels. The article was published in November in the renowned journal Green Chemistry (impact factor 8.586). A joint article on the encapsulation of an enzyme (biocatalyst) was previously published in the Journal of Biotechnology in August.
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Company visit at NextPharma

On November 23, 2018, an excursion to the Bielefeld site of the pharmaceutical company MextPharma gave us an insight into todays´s production technologies applied for the manufacture of pellet-type drug products. it was exciting for us to learn about the diversity of challenges being addressed when converting an APIs (API: active pharmaceutical ingredient) into such final drug products, thus underlining the importance of interdisciplinarity as competencies from different fields such as, e.g., chemistry, pharmacy and engineering, are needed. In addition, we also appreciate all the valuable information about the tasks of chemists at NextPharma, which have been of high interest for the members of our research group and participating chemistry students, respectively. We thank NextPharma very much for this unique opportunity to visit their Bielefeld site as well for their kind hospitality.

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Consortium develops alternative molecules for the plastics industry

The Organic Chemistry I research group at Bielefeld University, the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and BASF SE are working as a consortium to develop a novel alternative to conventional plasticisers in PVC. The joint project "Bioplasticisers" was developed as part of the ideas competition "New Products for the Bioeconomy" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The aim is to develop plasticiser molecules for products that protect people and the environment.
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Company visits at STOCKMEIER Chemie GmbH & Co. KG and Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG

Very recently on June 11 and 12, 2018, two exciting excursions to the chemical companies STOCKMEIER GmbH & Co. KG and Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG, both being located here in Bielefeld, gave us an insight into the industrial world of chemistry and the challenges related to the commercialization of chemical products and consumer goods, respectively. It was impressive to see the complexity of tasks being needed to develop and implement such novel products successfully to the market. Furthermore, interesting information about the "daily life of chemists" in an industrial environment was provided to the members of our research group and participating chemistry students, respectively. We are very grateful for having had these company visits and thank both companies, STOCKMEIER GmbH & Co. KG and Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG, very much for these unique opportunities as well as for their kind hospitality.

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Penicillin-based antibiotics

Penicillin-based antibiotics contain a five-membered hydrocarbon ring in which a sulphur and a nitrogen atom are also incorporated. Nadine Zumbrägel, PhD student at the Chair of Organic Chemistry I at Bielefeld University, has succeeded in selectively producing this important substructure with different residues on this ring using a biotechnological method. The targeted design of such structures now enables the creation of substance libraries of so-called heterocycles, which can be used by the pharmaceutical industry to find new active ingredients in the future. In addition to Bielefeld Chemistry, two scientists from Ruhr University Bochum were also involved in the research. The researchers, with Zumbrägel as first author and Professor Dr Harald Gröger, Head of the Chair of Organic Chemistry I and corresponding author, are presenting their research results today (16 May 2018) in the renowned journal "Nature Communications". Article

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Poster Award

Jana Löwe won the molecular catalysis poster award for her poster entitled, "Replacing co-substrates by carbon dioxide, water and light: A novel perspective towards bulky amines" at the 1st Biocascades Symposium & 8th International Cebitec Research Conference 2018 (ICRC 2018).

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Poster Award granted

During a SusChemSys 2.0 meeting at the RWTH Aachen on the 6th of April, Alessa Hinzmann and Tobias Betke were awarded both with a Poster Award out of 25 different posters for their contributions to the meeting. The committee og the award consisted of several industrial partners within the SusChemSys 2.0 cluster, which encourages us to pursue our focus on the process development for biocatalysis even further in the future.

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Hajime-Hoshi-Price

On 27 January, the German-Japanese Society Bielefeld (DJG) awarded the Hajime Hoshi Prize 2017 to biotechnologist Keiko Oike (27) from the Faculty of Chemistry at Bielefeld University. Keiko Oike was honoured for her outstanding scientific achievements and her commitment to supporting and integrating Japanese guest students. Gesa Neuert, President of the DJG Bielefeld, presented the certificate for the 1,000 euro prize. Keiko Oike comes from Toyama, on the north coast of Japan, and completed her Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biotechnology at Toyama Prefectural University, for which she received the university's best student award in 2013. Since 2016, she has been working on her doctorate in the field of biocatalysis in Professor Dr Harald Gröger's research group at Bielefeld University. The Hajime Hoshi Prize, awarded jointly by the DJG Bielefeld and Bielefeld University for the third time, is named after the important Japanese science patron Hajime Hoshi (1873 to 1951).
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Green Chemistry

Producing the active ingredient for a drug is a complex and lengthy endeavour: It often requires around a dozen production steps, reaction stages in which the respective product has to be isolated, separated and purified again and again. "This should and can be done in a more environmentally friendly way," says Prof Dr Harald Gröger from Bielefeld University.
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Visiting professorship in Japan

Professor Dr Harald Gröger from the Faculty of Chemistry at Bielefeld University has been awarded a visiting professorship at Osaka University, Japan. He will be in Japan in October and November. He will be conducting research at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University and will present his work in several lectures. During his guest professorship, he will also give lectures at other Japanese universities, for example at universities in Kyoto, Tottori, Chiba, Tokyo/Yokohama and Toyama.
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BMBF-Research grant 1.1 million euros for novel chemoenzymatic one-pot processes

For their joint research on combining the two "worlds" chemo- and biocatalysis towards novel types of chemoenzymatic one-pot processes, the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) supports the Hummel group (University of Düsseldorf) and Gröger group (Bielefeld University) with 1.1 million euros grant within the funding initiative "Next Generation of Biotechnology Precedures - Biotechnology 2020+".

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Otto Roelen Medal for Harald Gröger

Professor Dr Harald Gröger from Bielefeld University has been awarded the Otto Roelen Medal 2014 by DECHEMA and the German Catalysis Society in recognition of his work on the coupling of chemo- and biocatalytic reaction steps in the enantioselective synthesis of drug building blocks. By combining chemical and biotechnological processes, Harald Gröger links two worlds that were previously considered separately. Article