Bioengineering microalgae for their application as green cell factories

Microalgae are capable of efficiently converting inorganic CO2 with the help of sunlight energy and water splitting into organic biomass, which is composed of energy-rich carbon-based compounds. With this ability, microalgae have the potential to serve as “green cell factories” for bio-industries by bioengineering the direct catalysis of production processes for fine or bulk chemicals. However, in order to compete with heterotrophic bacteria systems in industrial biotechnology, bottlenecks such as limitations in photosynthesis, carbon fixation, and carbon partitioning towards the products of interest, as well as the availability of powerful molecular tools for the generation of mutants with enhanced efficiency as green cell factories have to be overcome. New achievements and insights into the design of synthetic constructs for efficient gene/protein expression and pathway engineering, performed with the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for the efficient synthesis of a variety of carbon-based products, will be presented with a specific focus on diterpenes and pigments.

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for our upcoming Euromarine Summer School PulseOcean.

Dates: September 14-20, 2025

Venue: Ischia Marine Center- Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Ischia, Italy.

Apply now: https://forms.gle/bb8QitenPPmzdsJfA

A Google account is required to complete the form due to the file upload fields

More information: here

Application deadline: May 26, 2025

All details are provided in the attached flyer, as well as in the PDF versions of the announcement and course information

We would be grateful if you could help us share this announcement widely with your networks.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Roberto Di Lauro has been appointed as the new President of the Dohrn Foundation.

Professor Emeritus of Medical Genetics, Roberto Di Lauro boasts a distinguished career in scientific research, with over 140 publications on gene expression and embryonic development, conducted at leading Italian and international institutions.

Throughout his career, he has served on numerous prominent scientific committees, including the Council of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the fellowship committee of the Human Frontier Science Program (as Chair), the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, as Chair), and the "Cell and Developmental Biology" review panel of the European Research Council (ERC).

Former President of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and Rector's Delegate for Research at the University of Naples Federico II, Professor Di Lauro also served as Science Attaché at the Italian Embassy in London from 2014 to 2018, after being awarded the prestigious title of Fogarty Scholar by the National Institutes of Health (USA).

From 2021 to 2026, he is serving as a member of the National Research Evaluation Committee (CNVR) at the Italian Ministry of University and Research. In 2007, he was honored with the title of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his outstanding scientific achievements.

With his extensive experience and commitment to research and innovation, Professor Roberto Di Lauro will lead the Dohrn Foundation in its continued growth and advancement in the years to come.

Born on May 13, 1938, Irmgard Müller studied first pharmacy, then history and philosophy as well as the history of medicine and pharmacy at the universities of Freiburg, Bonn and Düsseldorf. From 1985 to 2005, she was director of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum.
Her research interests included the history of the organization of science, the form of representation of knowledge, the interrelationship between medicine and technology, the history of pharmacy and the modern history of medicine and natural sciences. Her heart was tied to the history of biology and especially to the history of the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli.
During long research stays at the SZN (funded by the DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) I. Müller was among the first to make extensive use of the historical archive of the SZN. Her habilitation thesis on the Stazione Zoologica at the time of Anton Dohrn (Düsseldorf 1976) is still a model of completeness and precision, unfortunately accessible to few.
The research funds, especially German ones, obtained by I. Müller represented a first, important contribution to the ordering and cataloguing of the historical archive of the SZN. To her responsible collaboration we owe a renewal of the historical perspective on the Stazione Zoologica - from the stories of individual guests to a comprehensive perspective - through an exhibition and a catalogue in Naples (1974), at UNESCO in Paris (1975) and in Woods Hole (1980).

(Christiane Groeben e Heiner Fangerau)

Getting Europe off cheaper Russian energy, once and for all, is just one of Europe's many challenges.

Combating the climate crisis and environmental pollution, and safeguarding public health and food security are some others. Science offers facts and evidence-based recommendations. Europe’s leading scientists work together in EASAC to provide independent, empirical, and future-oriented policy advice for European lawmakers. 

Discover EASAC's work and how it connects to Europe's biggest challenges on the brand new website for policy makers:

https://lnkd.in/e3KgDNXP 

We are pleased to announce that the FIRST EDITION of the International Summer School on Microalgal Cell Factory-MICROFACTORY24, is coming!

From 11 to 15 November, Stazione Zoologica will host 20 internationally speakers coming from both the academic and industrial sectors to present the new frontiers of marine microalgae as biofactory!

The final program is online and you can download it by QR code:

The FAIR-EASE EOSC project in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II and the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn are pleased to announce an Open Day on Open Science to bring together policy makers, scientists and stakeholders on hot topics related to Earth Systems management and Environmental Sciences.

The event organization, coordinated by Dr Alessandro Rizzo (CNRS, France) and Maria Luisa Chiusano (Dept. of Agraria, University Federico II and associated scientist of the Dept. RIMAR of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), will offer an overview of the latest actions and opportunities from Open Science (morning session), as well as technological and methodological advancements on Oceans, Soil, Volcanoes, and on Biodiversity observations from the FAIR EASE project (afternoon session), to set the scene for Open discussions with main actors to face big environmental challenges and meet a sustainable development.

The full-day event will take place at the main building of the Stazione Zoologica, Villa Comunale, Naples, Italy.

https://council.science/events/re-launch-of-isc-geounions-distinguished-lecture-series/

The PhD project will be conducted in collaboration between Università degli Studi di Ferrara and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn.

We invite applications for a PhD student to work with Dr. Salvatore D’Aniello (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Napoli) and Prof.Cristiano Bertolucci (University of Ferrara) on “The circadian clock in the deep-sea fish”. The student will have the opportunity to spend 6 months in secondment in Nick Foulkes lab at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany).

To apply, please follow this link and the guidelines therein.

For more information, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The application deadline is September 2^nd, 2024, 12.00 CET