- We want to use bacteria to produce concrete, says Anja Røyne at the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo, lead researcher for BioZEment2.0.
- The first results were not great, and I wouldn’t build a house with the very first concrete from the lab. But our results show that the process can work, comments Røyne.
Funding from The Norwegian Research Council through Digital Life will allow the researchers to understand and shape the living production facility. A first step is to work with digital bacteria to understand the chemistry and physics behind their capabilities.
- We are currently developing two computer models. One is to test how bacteria, nutrients, water, and sand grains behave at a small scale. A second model explores the genetic and metabolic processes inside the bacteria, says Røyne.
- We needed bacteria that would be able to live in high pH environment, so I went on an expedition close to a limestone quarry to collect samples. In the soil samples we found bacteria that can take part in the bio-concrete production, explains Wentzel.
Wentzel and his team will use the data from the marine bacteria to discover novel antibiotics, a Digital Life Norway (DLN)-project called INBioPharm. By mapping candidate gene clusters with digital tools, and then testing the potential genes in host bacteria in the lab, Wentzel hopes to make discoveries that are relevant for the pharmaceutical industry.
- We also develop bioinformatics tools that will be valuable for other projects, he comments.
- We aim to combine digital models with laboratory work to understand how specialized bacterial enzymes work together to degrade plant material, says Eijsink.
In his DLN-project OXYMOD, the aim is to discover and develop enzymes that can turn otherwise wasted biomass into useful products. The OXYMOD and INBioPharm projects both rely on data from the marine bacteria collected by Wentzel and his team, but the detailed algorithms and secondary databases that help identify candidate genes or enzymes are different.
- We aim to recycle or refine plant material from forestry or food production into usable products. Enzymes can do the job for us, and the bacteria teach us how to optimize our processes, says Eijsink.
- Bacteria will extract palladium or gold from their environment and reduce the metals to nanoparticles, explains Dirk Linke at the Department of Biosciences at UiO.
The tiny particles produced by bacteria often show interesting catalytic capabilities. The goal of Linke’s DLN partner project NANOP is to modify and fine-tune the bacteria so that they produce novel and potentially useful nanoparticles.
- There may be new and interesting properties to nanoparticles when you can fine-tune size and composition, and combine different metals to get nanoparticles with specific purposes, he says.
- Systems biology integrates experimental data and computer models to extract more and better data from the research projects, says Almaas.