Activities
The focus of PHYCONET is on high-value products from microalgae (including cyanobacteria), industrially cultivated in an intensive and controlled manner using photobioreactor and fermentor-based technologies. Activities within this remit will be organised into five streams:
- Build on current expertise and progress in algal genomics, synthetic biology and systems biology to develop key species as phototrophic platform strains for the IB sector.
- Exploit the knowledge-base in bioinformatics, data mining, ‘omics, metabolic modeling and biological chemistry to identify new algal genes and metabolic pathways that could be exploited commercially, either through transfer to platform strains or industrial cultivation of the natural species.
- Develop a robust, cost-effective and scalable photobioreactor technology for the IB sector.
- Advance cultivation (phototrophic, mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth) and downstream processing technologies.
- Assess opportunities and barriers to commercialisation.