Latest Projects

Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2023-02-01 - 2025-01-31

Magnesium is an essential component of chlorophyll for plant physiology. Low Mg content in the leaves of grapevines reduces photosynthesis and, thus, glucose production and, consequently, lower wine quality. The right choice of rootstock is essential to alleviate this deficiency. However, the necessary Mg efficiency restricts the selection of the rootstocks, and in particular, the rootstocks that have been tried and tested in this country are less suitable. The deficiency can also be remedied by fertilizing the leaves, at least in the short term. But, the most sustainable solution would be to plant clones with an unproblematic Mg metabolism. An important grape variety for Austrian viticulture is mainly affected by Mag deficiency, namely Welschriesling (WR). The WR clones that are available for domestic viticulture all show more or less a weak Mg uptake. The variety has been used in viticulture for several centuries and was intensively cultivated and therefore exists in different genetic types. Since the old descriptions do not report this Mg deficiency, it is entirely conceivable that there is genomics in old genotypes that show average Mg utilization. Therefore, it would be necessary to look for genotypes that offer a better uptake and research it genetically. It is well known that crop phenotypic variation is shaped by their ancestors’ genetic variation and the selection and maintenance of collections of mutations. Moreo ver, most of this varia ti on is quan ti ta ti ve. Therefore, more than ever, an essential goal of genetics is to identify and use appropriate bio-markers for selection. In this way, appropriate biomarkers could be developed for the selection of WR, which enables a distinction between Mg-efficient and inefficient, which is very important for winegrowers. New clones with Mg efficiency would strengthen the local vine nurseries and viticulture and could also mean that vine material can be delivered to the neighbouring countries Hungary, Croa tia, Slovenia and Slovakia because the problem also exists there. Furthermore, this would result in a competitive advantage for domestic planting stock companies.
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-03-01 - 2027-02-28

Osteoarthritis (OA) represents a considerable societal and economic burden in today’s society. Despite the tremendous developments in the field of articular cartilage tissue engineering (AC TE) in the recent decade, none of the TE-based approaches has been able to regenerate the cartilage to levels of native tissue. The established paradigm of AC TE involves employment of undifferentiated MSCs in combination with 3D scaffolds/hydrogels and appropriate growth factors to induce chondrogenic differentiation of cells and deposition of ECM components like collagen and glycosaminoglycans. Once successful tissue has been formed in vitro, engineered cartilage grafts can be studied in vivo in large animal models to assess safety and efficacy of such grafts. Unfortunately, a considerable amount of grafts fails in vivo, which indicates the overall unsuitability and immaturity of the engineered tissues to function in the mechanically demanding environment of the joint in vivo. More importantly, there is no incentive to publish or submit for publication unsuccessful studies, which indicates that the number of failed studies employing large animal models could be considerably higher. Therefore, there is a need for novel strategies to screen and identify in vitro engineered cartilage grafts that have higher chances of success in vivo. In addition to increasing the success rate of such studies, this approach would have a great potential to reduce the number of animals utilized in such studies. In this context, there is evidence suggesting that chondrogenically differentiating MSCs respond anabolically to mechanical stress at later stages of differentiation by producing ECM components like glycosaminoglycans. Interestingly, the differentiation of MSCs is also associated with metabolic changes, where glycolysis is reduced and oxidative phosphorylation is enhanced as maturation progresses. The goal of this project is to develop a platform that could be used to assess such metabolic changes by sampling metabolites in- and outside the developing cartilage grafts to make statements concerning the maturity. By establishing such platform an additional readout would be available, in addition to commonly used biochemical and histological techniques within AC TE, that would facilitate a more informed decision making prior to an in vivo transition of a potential cartilage graft.
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-01-01 - 2027-12-31

Methanol is an attractive low-cost substrate for biotechnology that does not need agricultural land for its production and can be produced sustainably from the greenhouse gas CO2. Methylotrophy, i.e. the ability of microorganisms to use methanol as carbon and energy source, has evolved in several groups of bacteria, and in a branch of budding yeasts. In yeasts, the methanol assimilation pathway is encapsulated in peroxisomes which may protect the cytosol from toxic intermediates while in bacteria the processes are cytosolic and the reactions are thoroughly balanced to prevent the accumulation of toxic compounds. Research questions We plan to elucidate the role of compartmentation on the functioning of the methanol metabolism in the naturally methylotrophic yeast Komagataella phaffii, and engineered Escherichia coli, by answering the following research questions: • Why and to which degree is compartmentation essential for methylotrophy in yeast? • Can we establish synthetic methylotrophy in bacteria using an “artificial” methylotrophic organelle? Approach We will re-target the entire assimilation pathway to the cytosol of K. phaffii, and exchange the first enzyme from an O2-dependent oxidase to an NAD+ dependent dehydrogenase to understand if any, or all pathway reactions depend on the peroxisomal localization. Artificial organelles based on bacterial microcompartments will be built to harbor the pathway, and introduced into E. coli to create synthetic E. coli strains with the yeast methanol utilization pathway. Functionality of the pathway variants will be assessed by in vitro and in vivo 13C based metabolomics, and the metabolic network and its interplay will be further balanced by adaptive laboratory evolution.

Supervised Theses and Dissertations