Archive

Since the end of February, Nadiia Pozhydaieva as master's student and Nena Billen as bachelor's student with Jan Gebauer have strengthened our enzymology team. We are happy about your help and wish you a great time with us.

This month, Ruth Siahaan is visiting us as part of her studies. She supports the research of Martin Wäscher. Good luck to both of you.

Mr. Florian Garnebode has strengthened our team in recent years as a trainee. We hope that you have learned something with us. In any case, we are very pleased that you have now found a job after graduating as a chemical laboratory assistant, which will bring you closer to your home country again. We are sure you will support the team there - as well as our team - and wish you all the best in your private life, a fulfilling job and exciting challenges.

Mrs. Elena Raber was able to gain insights into the scientific laboratory routine and the methods of protein biochemistry in her student internship that accompanied Nikolai Huwa. We hope that you will take positive insights for yourself and perhaps even for your life. We really enjoyed the cooperation, your curiosity and openness; keep that up.

From the end of January to mid-February our elective modules Optimization Processes in Protein Production and Natural Product Biosynthesis take place at our institute. We wish all participants and all assistants an exciting time and knowledge and are looking forward to the cooperation. The block modules include laboratory work, accompanying seminars and a lecture series.

Andreas Klein will leave our working group in February 2020 after his doctorate and a period as a postdoc. In cooperation with our sister institute IMET, Andreas has significantly advanced the research strand of mutasynthesis in general and research on the prodiginins in particular. Later on, he dedicated himself to the (bio)synthesis of natural plant substances. With patience, team spirit, curiosity and dedication to science, Andreas has not only advanced his research work and made it accessible to a broad public in numerous publications. Andreas has also always represented our institute and the natural sciences to the public in a sympathetic, competent and winning manner - be it in student internships, visitor groups or public lectures. We will sorely miss him as a consultant on so many topics - and not only the scientific ones -, as a multi-faceted discussion partner and as a dear friend. We are convinced that you will support our Swiss colleagues just as much in word and deed as a scientist of integrity and a great person.

We wish you success on your further path.

The IBOC welcomes our participants for the course Natural Product Synthesis I + II. In the coming weeks the students will learn key steps in the synthesis of natural products in theory and support the supervising PhD students in the laboratory.

We wish them an exciting and educationaltime at the institute.

The IBOC was successfully represented at the 13th International CeBiTec Symposium - "Multi-Step Syntheses in Biology & Chemistry: An International Young Investigator Conference" with posters and a talk in Bielefeld. In an impressive lecture, our PhD student Marvin Mantel highlighted the synergies between organic chemistry and biocatalysis. Our Postdoc Andreas Klein also presented the bridge between these disciplines in his poster on Prodiginin research, which was awarded a poster prize.

More information about the symposium can be found here.

Our former Bachelor students of the FH Aachen/Jülich Alexandra Stan and Till Drennhaus received the plaque of honour of the FH Aachen as well as the prize of the DAAD for their outstanding achievements. The editors do not know whether the imperial insignia are also part of the prize. We congratulate you on these honours from the bottom of our hearts and thank you once again for your commitment to the Institute.

For the third time our colleague Andreas Klein represents the research of the IBOC and our cooperation partners in the calendar of the Heine Research Academies (HeRA) of the HHU Düsseldorf. In the year 2020, his colourful photo "Biology meets Chemistry" will again be the picture of December and represents the interdisciplinary aspects of our work. Further information on the calendar and the picture can be found in Mr. Claussen's article.

Both in chemistry and in biology, we have been able to strengthen our research team:

Chemist Stefanie Schlachter from HHU Düsseldorf is supporting in her bachelor thesis our PhD student Jasmin Wloka for her project within the CLIB-Kompetenzzentrum Biotechnologie (CKB). To this end, she establishes natural product syntheses and is investigating the use of cross-couplings for diversification. Yasmina Bahr, a student at the Europaschule Herzogenrath, gains her first insights into the field of biology/biotechnology during a two-week internship with our doctoral student Jan Gebauer.

We wish both researchers an educational and exciting time at the IBOC.

At the beginning of October, we said goodbye to our trainee and bachelor student Till Drennhaus. He completed his dual studies with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Aachen University of Applied Sciences and his training as a chemical laboratory assistant at Forschungszentrum Jülich. During his work at the IBOC, he supported Dr. Laura Öhler and Dr. Dennis Worgull in the organocatalysis team, Marvin Mantel in the field of auxiliary chemistry and Julian Greb in the synthesis of biaryls.

We wish Till all the best for his master's degree at the University of Münster!

At the end of September we said goodbye to Diana Amariei from Romania. Diana was supported for her three-month internship in our institute by the Erasmus program and supported the team of flow chemistry around Martin Wäscher and Benedikt Baumer. She established the enreductase YqjM for this technique. We wish her all the best for her Master in Biochemical Engineering in Cluj-Napoca.

At the same time, we welcome Lisa Böhmer. As a Bachelor student at the HHU Düsseldorf she will write her thesis in the flow chemistry team and works on the production and application of alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) by immobilisation. We wish you a successful and exciting time at the institute.

After many years the IBOC says goodbye to our employee Martina Holz. Since 2012 Martina has supported our institute as a postdoc in the field of biology and has taken over the task of project manager for our genetic engineering plant. In addition, she is coordinator of several graduate schools (iGRASPseed, CLIB-GC and GRK2158) and has lovingly supported the public relations work of the institute and beyond. After her departure from the IBOC, she will continue to work as project coordinator for the HHU in Düsseldorf – we wish you all the best for your future projects!

We congratulate our PhD student Marc Hayes on a very successful completion of his doctoral thesis on "Glycosynthases - Tuning glycosynthase activity towards glycoside diversification and synthesis" on September 24, 2019. By characterization and direct modification of different enzymes with respect to their glycosynthase activity, Marc has made a valuable contribution to the use of these glycosynthases in the biocatalysis of glycosides. The results of his investigations can be found not only in his doctoral thesis, but also in several publications.

Congratulations Marc!

At the third Night of Science, scientists from the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, with the participation of other organisations and institutions, presented the exciting world of research in more than 60 contributions.

Our research from the IBOC on the sustainable production of natural products using bioeconomy was explained to the curious audience by Andreas Klein in a colourful lecture.

Our trainee (chemical laboratory assistant) Sedef Eyeoglu was honoured by the IHK Aachen on 10 September in a ceremony for her very good results in her examination. A total of 223 trainees (seven percent of all 3,190 candidates) in the Aachen Chamber District completed their examination in the summer of 2019 with a grade of 1 "sehr gut". Sedef is thus one of 58 graduates of the district of Düren who completed their training with outstanding performance.

Congratulation Sedef!

Our PhD student Ceyda Kumru successfully defended her PhD thesis on the chemoenzymatic production of fragrances and flavors on September 4th 2019. Through elegant cascade reactions with various enzymes and coupled chemical synthesis, Ceyda often made the laboratory smell fruity like peach or sweet like coconut. The production of these and other fragrances can be read not only in her doctoral thesis, but also in a publication.

We wish her all the best for the future.

Congratulations Ceyda!

At this year's International Symposium for Biocatalysis and Biotransformation (BioTrans) in Groningen, NL, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (IBOC) was presented with several posters on current research projects at the IBOC and a very nice talk on our Prodigiosin research by Hannah Braß.

More information on the 14th International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotransformations (BioTrans 2019) can be found here: https://biotrans2019.com/

At the 8th European Conference on Boron Chemistry (EuroBoron) from 24.-27.6.19 in Montpellier, France, our PhD student Patrick Ullrich a very interesting talk on "Adjusting Reactivity: Selective Allylboration with Novel Tatrate-based Bench-stable Boronates". EuroBoron takes place every three years and serves as a platform for discussing all aspects of boron chemistry. More information about the EuroBoron is available at http://euroboron8.org/WP/

We are very happy to welcome Shailey Shah to our working group. Together with our PhD student Nikolai Huwa, she will be driving forward our research in the field of dirigent proteins within the framework of the DAAD RISE scholarship in the coming weeks. In addition, we look forward to a lively exchange - both scientific and cultural. Once again a warm welcome to Germany, a warm welcome to the IBOC.

During his PhD thesis, our doctoral student Bastian Mechsner worked on the "Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Altersolanol" successfully . These natural products are attractive candidates for pharmaceutical and medical applications, not only because of their structure but also because of their biological activity. Bastian could not only show the total synthesis of several representatives of the altersolanols in his work, but also provide further information on the structural characteristics. His work ultimately resulted not only in a great doctoral thesis, but also in two publications.

We wish Basti all the best for his future!

Congratulations, Basti!

... and so are the bachelor students. This spring, our working group will be strengthened by young talents who will do their respective qualification work with us. In total, we are allowed to host eight bachelor students in chemistry and biochemistry as well as one master student and one research priest student. The institute management would also like to thank the supervisors for their previous and future commitment. We hope that everyone will have an educational, insightful and cheerful time with us. In any case, we are looking forward to the cooperation.

Our doctoral student and coworker Laura Öhler defended her PhD thesis on 27th March 2019 successfully. During her Phd work she concentrated on the optimization of asymmetric organocatalysis with the help of ammonium ylides. Laura did a fantastic job! We wish her all the best for her future and her new job! Congratulations!

Congratulations to Roxanne Krug who defended her thesis on February 15^th 2019 successfully  In her doctoral thesis Roxanne worked on the synthesis of natural compounds using oxidoreductases as biocatalysts. Her successful work leaded not only to an excellent PhD thesis, but also to several publications. We wish Roxanne continued success and all the best for her future career!

Im November haben Florian Garnebode und Max Schlamkow ihre Ausbildungsabschnitte im IBOC begonnen. Wir freuen uns, dass Ihr unser Team verstärkt und wünschen euch viel Spaß und eine lehrreiche Zeit bei uns.

(v.l.n.r) Jan Gebauer, Florian Garnebode, Patrick Ullrich, Max Schlamkow.

Sebastian Myllek und Henrik Terholsen haben bei uns ein Forschungspraktikum absolviert. Für eure Hilfe bedanken wir uns herzlich und hoffen, dass ihr uns gewogen bleibt. Cindy Zimmermann hat im November bei uns ihre Masterarbeit im Themenfeld Naturstoffsynthese angefangen.

(v.l.n.r) Cindy, Sebastian und Henrik.

Im Oktober wurde unser Team durch vier junge Talente verstärkt. Ruth Ganardi absolviert bei uns ihre Masterarbeit. Teresa Friedrichs, Jasmin Wloka und Alexander Fejzagic beginnen mit ihren Doktorarbeiten. Wir wünschen euch allen viel Erfolg bei euren wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten und viel Spaß im IBOC.

(v.l.n.r) Alexander Fejzagic, Teresa Friedrichs, Ruth Ganardi und Jasmin Wloka.

Martin Wäscher hat im Herbst seine Masterarbeit bei uns begonnen und wird unsere Forschung auf der enzymologischen Seite der Durchflusschemie verstärken. Wir wünschen dir viel Erfolg bei deinen Arbeiten und freuen uns über deine Unterstützung.

Von August bis November verstärkt Frau Zhanna Renfeld vom Institut für Biochemie und Physiologie der Mikroorganismen in Puschtschino/Russland unser Team. Die Kollegin erhielt hierfür ein DAAD-Stipendium. Wir freuen uns sehr auf den wissenschaftlichen und kulturellen Austausch und wünschen Zhanna viel Erfolg für ihr Projekt.

Удачи Жанне

In den Sommermonaten haben Frederike Weber, Pascal Schneider und Nikolai Huwa bei uns ihre Doktorarbeiten begonnen. Wir freuen uns, dass ihr unser Team verstärkt, und wünschen euch viel Erfolg bei euren Projekten.

Für seine Masterarbeit im Arbeitskreis Höbenreich wurde Nikolai Huwa mit einem Masterpreis der GBM geehrt. Wir gratulieren herzlich zu diesem Erfolg.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Am 4. Juli 2018 erhielt David Klebl den Masterpreis gestiftet von der Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie für seine Arbeit: "Wunderbare Derivate: Mutasynthese von Prodiginin-Analoga". Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit konnten bereits publiziert werden.

David hat mittlerweile sein Doktorat in Großbritannien begonnen. Wir bedauern diesen Verlust, wünschen ihm aber weiterhin viel Erfolg in der Forschung!

Anfang Juli hat Claire Page von der UCLA bei uns im Labor ihr RISE-Praktikum bei Jan Gebauer begonnen. Wir danken dem DAAD für die Finanzierung und wünschen Claire und Jan eine erfolgreiche und bereichernde Zeit.

Prodiginine sind Wirkstoffe mit einem großen Wirkungsportfolio. In Kooperation mit unserem Schwesterninstitut -dem IMET- konnten Pseudomonas putida-Stämme entwickelt werden, die diese Naturstoffe heterolog mit hohen Titern produzieren. Der Clou: Dieser Organismus ist im Gegensatz zu den natürlichen Produzenten nicht humanpathogen.

In der aktuellen Publikation, welche in ChemBioChem erschienen ist, konnten Wissenschaftler von IBOC und IMET zeigen, dass auch mutasynthetische Strategien zur Produktion von zyklischen Derivaten erfolgreich angewendet werden können. Bei der Mutasynthese erstellt man einen Knock-out-Stamm, der einen bestimmten Teil des Naturstoffs nicht mehr produzieren kann. Füttert man einem solchen Stamm Analoga dieses Teils wieder zu, so können diese mit dem übrigen Naturstoffteil biosynthetisch verbunden werden, so dass man Derivate erhält. Man kombiniert also geschickt die komplexe Syntheseleistung der Lebewesen mit der Vielfältigkeit chemischer Synthesen. In dieser Publikation wurden zahlreiche zyklische (new-to-nature-)Derivate auf diesem Wege erzeugt, von denen eines sogar doppelt so effektiv die Autophagie in humanen Brustkrebszellen moduliert wie Obatoclax-Mesylat.

Große Teile dieser Publikation wurden während der Masterarbeit von David Klebl erzeugt und maßgeblich von Hannah und Andreas zur Publikationsreife getrieben. Toll gemacht!!!

Mit dem Ziel der frühen MINT-Förderung (MINT = Mathematik, Informatik Naturwissenschaften und Technik) nahm in diesem Jahr auch das Institut für Bioorganische Chemie an der Aktion des Forschungszentrum Jülich zum "Tag der kleinen Forscher" teil. Dieser Aktionstag wird von der Stiftung „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ in Partnerschaft mit der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft jährlich bundesweit als Höhepunkt des Forscherjahres veranstaltet. Das Motto in diesem Jahr lautete: „Entdeck, was sich bewegt“.

Mit diesem Hintergrund besuchte eine unserer Mitarbeiterinnen die Kindertagesstätte KID e.V. in Düsseldorf und forschte mit tatkräftiger Unterstützung des engagierten Erzieherteams mit den Kindern im Alter von 3 - 6 Jahren. Die Kinder (und auch alle Erwachsenen) hatten dabei viel Spaß am Ausprobieren, Basteln und Toben.

Weitere Infos zum "Tag der kleinen Forscher" bzw. zum "Haus der kleinen Forscher" gibt es hier:

www.tag-der-kleinen-forscher.de

Mitte Mai ist Zachary Schroeder im Rahmen seines RISE-Stipendiums bei uns eingetroffen und wird Julian Greb in diesem Sommer bei seiner Forschung unterstützen. Wir freuen uns auf einen produktiven Austausch und wünschen dir -Zac- viel Spaß bei uns.

Als ein standortübergreifendes Verbundprojekt für eine nachhaltige, ressourcenschonende Wirtschaft in Nordrhein-Westfalen soll das CLIB-Kompetenzzentrum Biotechnologie (CKB) aufgebaut werden, um biotechnologische Vorgänge und damit die Zeitspanne von der Idee bis zum Markteintritt zu verkürzen. Mit einer Gesamtsumme von mehr als acht Millionen Euro für 3 Jahre wurde das CKB nun durch Europäische Union und das Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Innovation, Digitalisierung und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen bewilligt.

Am CKB beteiligt sind neben Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Düsseldorf und Technischer Universität Dortmund, das Forschungszentrum Jülich und das Centrum für Biotechnologie (CeBiTec) der Universität Bielefeld.

Eine ausführliche Pressemitteilung finden Sie auf der Seite des Forschungszentrums Jülich und der Heinrich-Heine-Universität:

• http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/UK/DE/2018/2018-04-27-beschleunigte-biotechnologie.html

Weitere Informationen:

• http://www.clib2021.de/
• http://clibgc.hhu.de/

Am 3. Mai 2018 hat Andreas Klein erfolgreich seine Promotion verteidigt. Andreas hat in Kooperation mit unserem Schwesterninstitut dem IMET Arbeiten zur bio-, semi- und mutasynthetischen Herstellung von Prodigininen äußerst erfolgreich vorangetrieben. Die Kombination chemischer und biologischer Methoden konnte hier große Synergien heben, die unter anderem Andreas herausragender wissenschaftlicher Neugier und Kreativität zu verdanken sind. Das gesamte Institut gratuliert Andreas herzlich zu dieser wissenschaftlichen und persönlichen Leistung.

In April six (bio-)chemists started the experimental phase of their very first scientific work within the IBOC. We are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation and theses. We wish you a pleasant and successful stay.

(f.l.t.r) Top row: Prof. Dr. Jörg Pietruszka; centre row, the assistants: Benedikt Baumer, Fabian Hogenkamp, Patrick Ullrich, Marc Hayes, Laura Öhler, Marvin Mantel; lower row: Dr. Dennis Worgull, Stella Pauls, Mona Haase, Ching-Yi Choi, Bianca Axinte, Clemens Müller, Dennis Schröder.

Anja Weber née Ullrich defended her doctoral thesis in the field of natural compound/active agent synthesis successfullyon April the 10th 2018. The entire workgroup congratulates her on this achievement. We wish her all the best for her private and professional future, which already begun with her new job.

The small conference room in Blg. 15.13 shines in a new veneer. Roxanne Krug designed the background of the whiteboard-wall. Now its open to all guests either to listen to the seminar or the meeting's topic or chill looking at the wall.

Our great thanks go also to the team of the workshop, who helped significantly in upcycling the old whiteboard
.

From late August until early October, five Master students take part in the modules Natural Product Synthesis I and Natural Product Synthesis II (see Lehre). In the period of 3 to 6 weeks, the participants will get to know and master the challenges of synthesis planning in one-to-one supervision. We warmly welcome you to the institute and wish you an exciting time during the module!

(left to right) Vincent Brüning, Dmitrij Dolotin, Patrick Ullrich, Tobias Findeisen, Fabian Hogenkamp, Bianca-Georgiana Axinte, Benedikt Baumer, Hannes Thomaschik, Prof. Dr. Jörg Pietruszka, Patrick Marx.

The BioSC FocusLab HyImPAct (Hybrid processes for Important Precursor and Active pharmaceutical ingredients) has launched on January 1st 2018. The involved researcher groups pursue the goal of developing “multi substrate – multi product” processes. Establishing such processes requires the tight integration of microbial biotransformations, enzymatic cascade reactions, chemical synthesis steps, product recovery and techno-economic analysis, denoted as “hybrid processes”. Starting from D-xylose as the major carbon source of lignocellulosic hydrolysates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (chiral 1,2-diols, amino alcohols) and their bulk chemical precursor will be produced.

HyImPAct Website: https://www.biosc.de/Hyimpact_en

Press release: http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/UK/DE/2018/2018-01-15-biosc_focuslabs.html

Our former colleagues Marian Guder and Patrick Maag were recently honored for their outstanding studies at the FH Aachen. Congratulations!

Further information is available on the FH Aachen website: https://www.fh-aachen.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/#c131603

Our PhD student Claus Bier worked on the chemical synthesis of photocaged compounds during his PhD research. In cooperation with the Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology of HHU and AVT-Biochemical Engineering of RWTH Aachen the synthesized compounds were applied to light-induced gene expression. On 8^th of December he defended his PhD thesis successfully. Congratulations, Claus! We wish him all the best for his future career!

Andreas Klein participated in the VBIO Photo Contest 2017 "Impression aus den Biowissenschaften" [Impressions from Life Sciences] successfully and won a book price. The photo titled "Vom Bürostuhl zum Krebsmedikament – Extraktion von Sekundärmetaboliten mit Polsterschaum" [From office chair to cancer drug - Extraction of secondary metabolites with upholstery foam] was published in the anniversary edition 05/2017 of the journal "Biologie in der Zeit" (Link)

Congratulations, Andreas!

On Oktober the 11th of 2017 Claudia Holec defended her doctoral thesis successfully. We congratulate her for her very convincing thesis dealing with oxido reductases used for organic syntheses. We wish her all success and fun on her new position.

Congratulations to Julian Greb, who has been honored for his excellent results during his master studies by the GBM-master prize 2016, which was given to him on the Night of the Biochemistry.

Well done!

Our one and only Australian doctoral student Ben defended his thesis about the 'Development and Application of Galactosynthases for Use in Organic Synthesis" on June 12 succesfully. We wish him all the best for his future career! Congratulations, Ben!

White biotechnology bridges the gap between sustainable natural ressources and valuable chemical products and, thus, plays a central role in building up a future knowledge-based bioeconomy. In particular, white biotechnology reduces our dependency on fossil fuels and offers large opportunities to synthesize platform chemicals, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and proteins using the biocatalytic power of microorganisms or isolated enzymes.
At the Jülich Biotech Day, experts from academia and industry will present current highlights and trends in this exciting field of research and development.

More information about the program and the registration procedure are available on the website of Jülich Biotech Day: www.fz-juelich.de/BiotechDay

On February the 16th 2018 Peter Kusen defended his promotional thesis. Peter developed the field of optogenetics and switchable inductors in our institute. Congratulations to your success!

At the 5^th Carnival Conference session, organized by the young scientists of the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Cologne, our doctoral student Marvin Mantel was able to convince the jury with his poster and won one of the poster prizes. Congratulations, Marvin!

The 5th Carnival Conference Session took place on 22 February 2017 in Cologne. Further information can be found here: Carnival Conference Session.

The BioSC FocusLab CombiCom has launched on May the 1st 2017. The consortium aims to produce secondary metabolites and derivaties thereof for the development of active agents. Especially the biosynthesis and its regulation, mutasynthesis, and semisynthesis will be exploited for the production of the complex molecules and will be developed, respectively.

Details on the BioSC:CombiCom-homepage

Congratulations to our PhD student Marcus Brauns who defended his thesis with the topic "New allylboronic esters for synthesis of enantiopure homoallylic alcohols" successfully. With his work he made an important contribution for an accelerated approach towards isomerically pure homoallylic alcohols. We wish Marcus all the best for his future!

Our former employee Pepe Joss Strache was recently honored for his outstanding studies at the FH Aachen. Congratulations Pepe!

Further information is available on the FH Aachen website: https://www.fh-aachen.de/fachbereiche/gestaltung/aktuelles/details/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=6582&cHash=90cdce497e6871cb6765ee30f1dfaff3

Our PhD student Yvonne Gehrke defended her thesis about "Application of stereoselective synthesis methods for the production of important intermediates in natural compound synthesis" successfully on December 19^th 2016. Congratulations! We wish her all the best for her future!

From 4^th to 7^th December 2016 we had the winter project meeting of the consortium BioLiSy at the IBG-1. We would like to thank our Russian colleagues for the long trip they made and the constructive discussions we had. We are looking forward to meet you again soon.

Our PhD student Elisabeth Rüthlein defended her thesis about 'Ene reductases in asymmetric synthesis' successfully on November 29th. Congratulations! We wish her all the best for her future in Leeds!

At the annual Day of Organic Chemistry at University of Stuttgart our PhD student Claudia Holec presented her results during her talk about "Oxidoreductases as versatile catalysts in organic synthesis".

This event took place on 14th of October in Stuttgart. You will find more information about TOCUS on the following website: www.uni-stuttgart.de/ochem/veranstaltungen/tocus.html

Congratulations to our PhD student Caro Bisterfeld for successfully defending her thesis with the title 'Rational design of acetaldehyde depending aldolases and their application in organic synthesis'. We wish Caro all the best for her future in Delft!

Our PhD student Peter Kusen convinced the jury with his excellent talk about "Light-Controlled Gene Expression in Yeast" at ICP 2016 - 18th International Conference on Photochemistry (Paris, France) and thus was awarded for the best presentation at that conference. Congratulation!

Our former PhD student Markus dick presented his PhD research topic successfully at the 8th International Congress on Biocatalysis (BioCat) in Hamburg. His convinced the jury with his excellent poster and won one of the desired poster prizes. Congratulations!

More infos about BioCat you will find here: biocatconference.de/2016/

That sciencific research can often result in impressive pictures was proven by our PhD student Andreas Klein successfully within the pART of Research Contest organized by the Heine Research Academies. His pictures was entitled "Anziehend" ('Attracting') and shows a sponge which is red colored due to the natural compound prodigiosin. This remarkably picture was made during his work on production of prodigiosin derivatives (Domröse A, Klein A, et al., Front. Microbiol. 2015, 6, 972). 

The selected images of this contest will be displayed in the first "pART of Research" calendar of Heine Research Academies (2017).

As every year the whole group of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry comes together for an internal retreat in Küchelscheid (Belgium). Results and plans were well presented and discussed. Besides, we also played some team games. With fresh energy and a lot of ideas we start again to work and hope for better weather for the next year!

Scientists from IBG-1 and IBOC have visited  their Russian collaboration partners of the Russian Academy of Science in Pushchino (Moscow Region, RU) and the Russian Strain Collection for filamentous fungi (Moscow, RU), respectively, from June the 6^thto June the 10^th. The very fruitful meeting highlighted again the importance of scientific exchange on an international level for the bioeconomy. The project BioLiSy is funded by the BMBF and the Russian Ministry of Science and aims at producing lignans in a bioeconomic/biotechnologic manner. Lignans are hard to adress by means of classical chemical methods.

Congratulations to our PhD student Claus Bier who won a poster price for his excellent poster entitled "Sugar Based Caged Compounds for Biotechnological and Synthetic Biological Applications" at the 26th IUPAC International Symposium on Photochemnistry in Osaka, Japan.  

More informationen about the 26th IUPAC International Symposium on Photochemnistry from 3rd to 8th April 2016 in Osaka, Japan, you will find her: web.apollon.nta.co.jp/iupac2016/

On March 18th 2016 our PhD student Sanel Suljíc defended his thesis with the title "Laccases in Organic Chemistry" successfully. Congratulations! We wish Sanel all the best for his future! Have fun!

From 14th to 17th of December the 11th J-NOST conference for Research Scholars was held at the School of Chemical Sciences, National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, India. Thanks to a travel scholarship of GDCh our PhD student Carolin Bisterfeld was able to follow the invitation for an oral presentation with the title "Acetaldehyde-dependent Aldolases in Organic Synthesis - Learning from Mechanistic Studies".

You will find more information about this conference in the following PDF:

www.niser.ac.in/docs/2015/XI%20J-NOST%20conference%20for%20research%20scholars.pdf

Roza Vahabi has defended her doctoral thesis with the topic 'Investigation of Differently Substituted Allylboronic Esters in Allylation Reactions' successfully on August 31^st 2015. We congratulate to her doctoral thesis and wish her all the best for her future.

Our PhD student Claudia Holecwas invited to join a study trip organized by the JungChemikerForum (JCF) of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) in cooperation with the North Eastern Section of the American Chemical Society Younger Chemists Committee (NESACS/YCC). Together with 11 other PhD students from all over Germany Claudia was able to take part in the 250^th ACS Meeting in Boston. During thsi meeting she presented her scientific work in 20 min talk. Among other activities all participants of this journey visited the Havard University, the Oceanographic Institute in Cape Cod, the MIT and the company "Genzyme" in Boston.

More informantion about the 250^th ACS Meeting in Boston you will find here.

JungChemikerForum der GDCh

Northeastern Section Young Chemists Committee of ACS

At the 6th CLIB-GC & iGRASPseed Student Symposium on August 20th at Heinrich Heine Universität in Düsseldorf our PhD Student Markus Dick represented our Institute with his excellent presentation about his research in "tailoring the stability of acetaldehyde dependent aldolases". Thanks, Markus.

For more information about the CLIB-GC & iGRASPseed Student Symposium please got to http://clibgc.hhu.de/