Academic Centre
On the 22nd of September at 13:30 (UTC +3) an informative seminar will be held at the House of Nature, Academic Centre of the University of Latvia, room 601, in which the wider public will be introduced with the present findings and the ongoing progress of the project ‘’Crypthecodinium cohnii and Zymomonas mobilis syntrophy for production of omega 3 fatty acid from byproducts of biofuel and sugar industry’’. The seminar is co- organized with Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Latvia (IMBUL), CLEANTECH LATVIA, Latvian Biotechnology Association and Latvian Society of Microbiology.
The objective of the present project is to establish a bioprocess of syntrophic co-cultivation of two microorganisms (Crypthecodinium cohnii and Zymomonas mobilis) at laboratory prototype level for bioconversion of renewables into valuable vegetarian (produced by microorganisms) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from omega 3 fatty acid family. DHA is essential for health of infants and adults. Its market growth is about 10% annually and is expected to reach 240 thousand metric tons in 2020. 96% of DHA currently is produced from fish. Although the quality of microbiologically produced DHA is higher (without specific odor or taste, especially important for infant food), it is more expensive so far. The growing market and high costs of DHA requires new solutions, addressed by this project: design of advanced, high-yielding microbial bioproceses, based on cheap renewable substrates, instead of extracting DHA from a limited resource - marine fish oil.
The findings will be presented by the project partners: Laboratory of Microbial Bioenergetics, Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Latvia (IMBUL), Computational Systems Biology Group IMBUL, AS “Biotehniskais centrs”, and Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry. The informative seminar will be open to everyone and the communication language will be Latvian.
The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund Specific Objective 1.1.1 “Improve research and innovation capacity and the ability of Latvian research institutions to attract external funding, by investing in human capital and infrastructure” 1.1.1.1. measure “Support for applied research”. Project No. 1.1.1.1/18/A/022.
