The third project meeting of the MultiKulti team took place at the end of February at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
In addition to organisational matters, we discussed the status of reactor construction.
Two good news about the reactor came in during the very meeting, so the entire team was left in a positive mood. In addition, Marius Conrady from HUB had two new devices in tow, to pass on to project partners UDE and DLR. These devices were designed by the project team’s engineers themselves and manufactured in the Biosystems Technology workshops in Berlin.
First, we inspected the novel self-made propidium monoazide crosslinker. The chemical PMA is used in so-called v-PCRs (viability PCRs; see Nocker 2007). For this purpose, it is necessary to irradiate the samples with blue light – something that the project group at UDE will now be able to do using the new apparatus.
The other new application is a perspex bioreactor modelled on the side reactors of the MultiKulti reactor-to be. Initially it will be used to cultivate extremely halophilic organisms under conditions that resemble those within the large reactor as closely as possible. Later during the runtime of MultiKulti, further cultivations might be carried out in reactors of this type.
The cultivating project partners also reported on the progresses in their respective subprojects and a lively scientific discussion ensued. Ultimately we took our leave from Dr. Marion Pohlner (ICBM), who will start a new position and thus withdraw from the team. We are very grateful to Marion for her great work, organizing so many meetings and the good times together.
On Wednesday, after discussing organisational matters and having lunch together in the cafeteria of the University of Duisburg-Essen, everyone made their way home.
We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Alexander J. Probst and Sophie Simon as well as their team for their hospitality and the organisation of this great project meeting.
