Sven Panke
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Guest Speaker
Sven Panke is a Bioprocess Engineer at ETH Zurich. He was trained at the German National Research Center for Biotechnology in Braunschweig, the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas in Madrid, and the ETH Zurich. Before returning to ETH, he worked for two years for the Dutch Chemical Company DSM. His current research interests revolve around biocatalyst design and the generation of novel chemical functions in biology. His work was awarded with the ETH Medal and the DSM Research Award.
Keynote presentation: Top down and bottom up – the membrane mass transfer problem from two sides
Session "Metabolic Engineering" | Tuesday, 1 Dec, 16:00 - 16:30 CET
Abstract: A central prerequisite for life is spatial organization provided by functionalized membranes. Evolution has endowed biomembranes with amazing properties, for example with respect to selectivity. This makes a more comprehensive reengineering of metabolism a challenge, as novel metabolites have to cross the membrane first. In artificial droplet systems such problems can be overcome by physico-chemical operations, but the functional complexity of such operations remains limited. I will look at possible solutions for this mass transfer problem that is crucial for the further development of cellular or synthetic metabolism from two perspectives, top down and bottom up.