Press

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is currently mainly known for its role in Covid-19 vaccines, but RNAi can also have important non-medical uses, namely as a precisely targeted, environmentally friendly pesticide. In its article, the British magazine "The Economist" reports, among other aspects, on the development of methods for the application of RNA pesticides by the company GreenLight Biosciences, with which the Fraunhofer IME is collaborating.

Fraunhofer ITEM and IME contracted by Umweltbundesamt OECD Test Guidelines display an important tool to evaluate the impacts of chemicals on the environment. The update of the Test Guidelines is organised by the Working Party of National Coordinators for the OECD Test Guidelines Programme (WNT) and the OECD Secretariat.

Within the framework of a virtual meeting, Dr. Kwang-Zin Lee accepted the grant for the joint project "HOPE" of around 250,000 euros for the Bioresources Branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME.

In a project funded by the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and carried out by Fraunhofer IME, an advanced concept is applied to investigate the accumulation of substances in an exemplary freshwater food web. The general aim is to support the regulatory risk assessment of bioaccumulating chemicals. For this purpose, organisms were sampled from different trophic levels of Lake Templin, a part of the Havel River near Berlin.

Proteins are vital for life. At the same time, there is a protein shortage in the global food supply. Due to extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change as well as soil and water pollution caused by the use of pesticides and fertilizers, this shortage can increase in the future. One approach to tackle this challenge is to open up novel protein sources as a sustainable alternative for animal source foods suitable for the masses. In the lighthouse project “FutureProteins”, six Fraunhofer institutes develop new cultivation systems, which can produce nutritious proteins from selected plants, insects, fungi and algae.

On behalf of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME is coordinating the EU project PhotoBoost. The aim of the project is to boost the photosynthetic performance of C3 plants like rice and potatoes by combining both novel and already established molecular biology strategies.

Within the Fraunhofer High Performance Center “International Center for Networked, Adapted Production” (ICNAP), the three Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Production Technology IPT, Laster Technology ILT, and Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME along with RWTH Aachen University and industry partners jointly develop and validate production systems for Indus-trie 4.0. The Fraunhofer IME sets its focus on the manufacturing of recombi-nant proteins by means of big data analytics.

Since 1st January 2021, the Branch for Bioresources of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME has a new deputy director: Prof. Dr. Holger Zorn. The professor of food chemistry and food biotechnology will support the head of the branch institute Prof. Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas at the Gießen site.

Scientists at Fraunhofer IME published “Guidelines on Target Assessment for Innovative Therapeutics” developed in the BMBF-funded GOT-IT project, which should facilitate more efficient translational research at universities and promote the transition to industry.

Continuous, pesticide-free and sustainable farming of plant-based food inside buildings? Within the project “OrbiPlant®”, the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecu-lar Biology and Applied Ecology IME has developed an innovative, automated plant farming system to make this possible.