Barbara Ann Halkier receives grant from NNF

Head of DynaMo Professor Barbara Ann Halkier has received a grant of 3 million DKK from the Novo Nordic Foundation for her project on applying ‘Advanced synthetic biology for production of health-promoting glucoraphanin in a microbial cell factory’.

The grant is one of the NNF Industrial Biotechnology and Environmental Biotechnology project grants from 2020. The aim of Barbara's project is to develop a stable, rich production platform of the health-promoting glucoraphanin.

Epidemiological and human intervention studies strongly indicate that dietary consumption of broccoli is associated with numerous health benefits including reduced risk of developing cancers and myocardial infarction. However, the potential of the health-promoting compound in broccoli, glucoraphanin, is not fully realized through the diet. This has primed a desire to establish microbial production of glucoraphanin. A stable, rich source of this compound would allow intake of well-defined, reliable doses to promote human health and reduce disease. Towards building an efficient microbial production of the health-promoting glucoraphanin in the industrial hosts E. coli and S. cerevisiae, we have encountered challenges with the availability of the tightly regulated methionine precursor and with a metabolic bottleneck at the sulfotransferase step that converts desulfoglucosinolate to glucosinolate.

The knowledge gained and the biotechnological tools generated can directly be utilized to develop a sustainable, cost-effective manufacturing of glucoraphanin that can be commercialized as dietary supplement, in functional foods, or as medicine.

Barbara's project commences 1st of February 2021 and has a duration of three years.