The plastic crisis:

Does gene editing pose a viable perspective?

To discuss the perspective of gene editing practices as viable solutions to the environmental plastic pollution we have invited some stakeholders for a panel discussion at the university. The speakers, relating to different fields ranging from the NGO Greenpeace (Dirk Zimmermann) to algae cultivation (Jörg Ullmann) will shed light on the topic from their different perspectives. We would like to welcome you there, too!

Algae Farm Kloetze

“The most important lungs of our planet are our oceans - every second oxygen molecule we inhale is produced by algae”

This is why Joerg Ullmann, the owner of one of the biggest algae farms in Europe, is still fascinated by algae and has worked with them for more than 15 years. We visited him at his farm to understand how algae can be cultivated in such a big scale. Here he grows spirulina and chlorella which then can be processed, for example to food and cosmetic products. As we built a bioreactor for c. reinhardtii as well, it was very important to exchange ideas. We learned that not every algae needs the same cultivation and that there is not just one perfect way to cultivate algae in general. Every species is different in its demands - this is why we have/had to experiment how chlamy can be cultivated best.

MINT Microalgae Engineering

Algae can be cultivated in many different ways, which is why we tried to meet up with a variety of companies working with green algae.

MINT Enginnering focuses on the urban farming segment and creates bioreactors suitable for every kind of facades. Gunnar Muehlstadt, CEO of MINT, emphasized that the cultivation and the actual degradation of plastic by chlamydomonas should happen in two different reactors. During our meeting we also learned about the costs of cultivation and what kind of of material we probably need. Moreover he offered us to test our algae on a larger scale with his systems, once our bioreactor is finished.

MINT Microalgae Engineering

ResearchGate is a social network, created for scientists all over the world.The platform allows researchers, students, and everyone who is interested, to connect with scientists, to exchange papers and to stay on track about the latest publications. Luckily, we were invited to talk about our project at the ResearchGate office in Berlin. Here, we met people from different professional and academic backgrounds working on the scientific knowledge transfer across disciplines and social groups. By talking to project management specialists, we learned how to streamline the processes of creating tasks, assigning due dates and responsible team members to them and how to finish these by their respective deadlines.