Research scientist Ville Rissanen at VTT creates life-sustaining matrix structures from nanocellulosic hydrogels to provide a favorable environment for photosynthetic bacteria. These solid-state cell factory platforms can then produce a variety of chemicals, using only sunlight, CO2, water and small amounts of nutrients as its feedstock. Ideally, these systems could replace many fossil-based chemical manufacturing routes from high-value pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to commodity chemicals.
The leaf-inspired matrix is built from wood-based hydrogels and bio-based cross-linkers to create a structure that binds the cells within a thin layer, but allows the flow of water, nutrients and the end products. This solid-state approach supports higher cell density and improved light distribution compared to conventional suspension cultures, overcoming many bottlenecks in their production efficiency. Moreover, it provides stable and reproducible conditions for the long-term production of high-value chemicals.
Ville’s work has been focused on optimizing the properties of the matrix and its interactions with the living cells, especially in fabricating matrix structures that are stable in aqueous bioreactor conditions while also enabling high cell viability. This interdisciplinary work, as a part of the FuturoLEAF project, has been conducted in close collaboration with material scientists, biologist and biotech experts from the University of Turku, Technical University of Graz (Austria), Simris Biologics (Germany), Aalto University and CNRS (France).
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