Institut für Systembiotechnologie

Welcome at the Institute of Systems Biotechnology

Biotechnology has the potential to revolutionize industrial production - the team headed by Prof. Christoph Wittmann works in the heart of this exciting development. We design and develop cell factories to tailor the synthesis of valuable products - high-end healthcare ingredients, large volume platform chemicals, and smart bio-materials. For this we optimize metabolic pathways and their control in microorganisms and equip them even with new abilities – our leading approaches of systems metabolic engineering and synthetic biology make this possible. Furthermore, we use our "synthetic bugs" to develop innovative, environmentally friendly value chains. The synthesis of the future uses renewable raw materials - we too.

Latest Publications

  • Mees DJ, Cao P, Ternes MV, Thönes A, Kohlstedt M, Wittmann C (2026)

    Substrate-informed metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum enables balanced glucose–xylose co-utilization for the valorization of lignocellulosic feedstocks.

    Metab. Eng. In press.

  • Qi H, Ries F, Jovanovic-Gasovic S, Dietrich D, Gemperlein K, Müller R, Kohlstedt M, Wittmann C (2026)

    Acetyl- and malonyl-CoA availability drive EPA selectivity in polyketide synthase-engineered Yarrowia lipolytica.

    Microb. Cell Fact. In press.

  • Dietrich D, Qi H, Jovanovic-Gasovic S, Kohlstedt M, Wittmann C (2026)

    Defined YNB-free mineral medium improves reproducibility and enables high-titer production in Yarrowia lipolytica.

    Microb. Cell Fact. In press.

iSBio News

Reimagining waste as a resource: Scientists in Saarland transform polystyrene into nylon...

It might sound like science fiction, but it’s already a reality. Bacteria are now capable of breaking down environmentally harmful substances like polystyrene and turning them into the...

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Saarbrücken biotechnologists conduct research into the production of sustainable recycled...

Nearly 380 million tons of plastics are currently produced each year - with a strong upward trend and the well-known negative consequences for our planet. The EU project "REPurpose" therefore aims...

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Novel BMBF-funded project to produce health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids in microbes

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), primarily the marine ones, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), have received worldwide attention in recent years due to an increasing...

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