Due to climate change and pollution, we need to work toward carbon capture during production processes and abolish the use of fossil fuels to produce chemicals and plastics. In addition, we need to work toward a circular bioeconomy.

The Baur lab is interested in bacteria that can consume (industrial) waste gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide with and without the addition of hydrogen. One group of these bacteria is the so-called acetogens, which produce acetic acid, ethanol, and other chemicals during growth. We are mainly working with the model organism Clostridium ljungdahlii. We identify genes and proteins involved in growth with different carbon sources. Furthermore, we want to determine the effects of transcriptional, translational, or post-translational regulation.

This knowledge will help to engineer the acetogens for producing other value-added compounds using established molecular and synthetic biology approaches. This will help avoid fossil fuel use and bring us closer to a circular bioeconomy.