Biosketch

Prof. dr. Roel Bovenberg

Roel Bovenberg is Distinguished Corporate Science Fellow at DSM-Firmenich, an international company innovating in Nutrition, Health and Beauty (https://www.dsm-firmenich.com/corporate/home.html) and Honorary Professor in Synthetic Biology and Cell Engineering at the University of Groningen, being embedded in the GBB institute. Trained as biochemist and molecular biologist (PhD 1988), he has a special interest and expertise in development of microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of natural products and biochemicals.

Three top publications 2017-2022

1. Mózsik L, Pohl P, Meyer V, Bovenberg RAL, Nygård Y & Driessen AJM (2021). Modular synthetic biology toolkit for filamentous fungi. ACS Synthetic Biology 10: … DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.1c00260

A comprehensive modular toolkit for genetic modification of broad range of filamentous fungi, consisting of CRISPR systems for genome modification and expression, various gene expression systems (promoters, terminators, transcription factors, fluorescent markers), transformant selection systems and episomal vectors. The toolkit is available at AddGene to enable fast(er) engineering of notoriously difficult to engineer filamentous fungi.

2. Iacovelli R, Bovenberg RAL & Driessen AJM (2021) Nonribosomal peptide synthetases and their biotechnological potential in Penicillium rubens. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 48 (7-8): kuab045; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab045

A comprehensive overview on the biochemistry and structural biology of large and complex non-ribosomal peptide synthetases, essential enzymes for a broad range of natural bioactive products, including beta-lactam antibiotics. The paper also highlights various efforts and strategies to engineer these modular enzymes for new biosynthetic and biotechnological applications. This paper is a tribute to prof AL Demain.

3. Pohl C, Polli F, Schütze T, Viggiano A, Mózsik L, Jung S, de Vries M, Bovenberg RAL, Meyer V & Driessen AJM (2020) A Penicillium rubens platform strain for secondary metabolite production. Scientific Reports 10: 7630; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64893-6

A unique filamentous fungal strain for expression of fungal secondary metabolite pathways. Major endogenous secondary metabolite pathways were deleted by highly efficient CRISPR guided genome modification, resulting in a clean product background in fermentation media, ideal for characterization of new biosynthetic gene clusters and discovery of new natural products.