DECHEMA Zukunftsforum award for Helena Schulz-Mirbach

Helena Schulz-Mirbach from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg has been awarded this year's DECHEMA Zukunftsforum Prize. The prize honours her master's thesis in the field of synthetic biology, where she implemented a novel reaction in the model organism E. coli. This enables a wide range of new chemical conversions, such as new biosynthetic pathways for the production of bioplastics or the conversion of carbon dioxide into usable raw materials.

Helena Schulz-Mirbach demonstrated the novel reaction of the biocatalyst 3-hydroxypropionyl-CoA mutase in the model organism E. coli. In her master thesis in Tobias Erb's research group at the MPI in Marburg, she succeeded in altering the bacterial metabolism of the model bacterium E. coli in such a way that the synthetic pathway was coupled to cell growth. With this implementation in the model organism, she is expanding the range of reactions in synthetic biology and creating the conditions for optimising the biocatalyst for various applications in the future.

The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding student thesis with an interdisciplinary focus. It is endowed with 1,500 euros and Sartorius Stedim Biotech provides a further 1,500 euros. The award ceremony will take place on 12 September 2024 during the DECHEMA FORUM in Friedrichshafen.

Source: DECHEMA Press release