Prof. Kaspar Valgepea is a Group Leader at the Institute of Bioengineering, University of Tartu, Estonia. He received his PhD in Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology from Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia in 2014 with the thesis focused on systems-level characterisation of Escherichia coli metabolism. Kaspar conducted postdoctoral research at The University of Queensland, Australia where he led a project to establish a systems biology platform for the gas-fermenting microbe Clostridium autoethanogenum. He has also carried out research in Japan, US, and Denmark.

Valgepea lab integrates gas fermentation with systems and synthetic biology to address global biosustainability challenges. Key research aims are to advance fundamental understanding and rational metabolic engineering of gas-fermenting microbes towards sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and proteins from waste feedstocks. Kaspar was the ERA Chair holder in the ERA Chair GasFermTEC at University of Tartu and was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2023.

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Keynote Details

Tuesday 30 June

Symposium 11: Prokaryotic cell factories

Understanding and engineering gas-fermenting acetogens to capture waste carbon

The global climate crisis necessitates an urgent shift towards a circular bioeconomy, where carbon is treated as a valuable resource rather than a waste product. We must replace fossil fuels as industry feedstocks with sustainable raw materials and CO2-neutral technologies. Gas fermentation is a technology that allows the recycling of carbon oxides from both industrial waste gases and gasified solid waste into sustainable fuels and chemicals using gas-fermenting microbes. Gas fermentation using acetogens is currently used for the industrial production of ethanol. While bioengineering methods allow to create superior cell factories, metabolic engineering is hindered by our limited understanding of acetogen metabolism. In this presentation, I will introduce acetogen gas fermentation with its pros and cons and describe the magnificent microbes doing the work. I will also provide an overview of the research we do in ValgepeaLab with a focus on understanding and engineering the metabolism of gas-fermenting acetogens through the integration of gas fermentation with systems and synthetic biology.