The H.G.K.Westenbrink prize 2014/2015 has been awarded to Dr Andreas Angermayr for his thesis "Synthetic biology of cyanobacterial cell factories" (promotor: Prof. dr. Klaas Hellningwerf, University of Amsterdam). In his PhD work Dr Angermayr pursued the metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria to alter, therefrom understand, and ultimately rationally re-design their physiology. In his work he developed genetically modified Synechocystis strains for producing the bioplastic-precursor lactic acid and the biofuel-precursor 2,3-butanediol. Key to the success in this work was the maximization of channeling of the metabolism towards product formation. Dr Angermayr is currently working as a postdoc in the Systems Biology and Biophysics group of Tobias Bollenbach at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) in Klosterneuburg, Austria.
The H.G.K. Westenbrink prize was established by the Stichting Stimulering Biochemie Nederland (SSBN) and is awarded each year to the best thesis in the area of biochemistry and molecular biology of the previous academic year. The prize will be handed out during this year’s NVBMB fall symposium (see below).
