Metagenomic Discovery of Biomass Degrading Genes and Genomes for Improved Biofuel Production

The industrial production of lignocellulosic biofuel is currently commercially not viable. This is mainly due to the inefficiency of enzymes that hydrolyze the biomass into monomeric sugars. Matthias was one of the leads in a massive scale DNA sequencing project at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) during which he and his colleagues characterized the genes and genomes of plant-digesting microbes isolated from the cow rumen. With support from the Energy Biosciences Institute the team lead by JGI director Eddy Rubin reported almost 30,000 enzymes with the potential of degrading lignocellulosic biomass. The results of this study have been published in the journal Science (Science, 2011; 331 (6016): 463).

Novel biocatalysts from extremophiles

Enzymes stable and active under extreme conditions have a great potential to improve industrial processes that are run under conditions that improve the reaction rate and simultaneously decrease the risk of contamination (e.g. high temperature and low pH value). Promising sources of these extremozymes are microbes of the domain Archaea found in very hostile environments such as hot springs or volcanic soils. During his Ph.D. research with Garabed Antranikian at the Institute of Technical Microbiology, Matthias was investigating the extremely thermoacidophilic Archaea Picrophilus torridus and Thermoplasma acidophilum and their enzymes. The result of this work was published in several peer-reviewed journals.

Adaptation of the superbug Deinococcus radiodurans to high levels of ionizing radiation

Deinococcus radiodurans, one of the most radiation resistant organisms known today, can survive ionizing radiation at levels lethal to humans and exposure to other DNA damaging conditions including exposure to desiccation, ultraviolet (UV) radiation and chemical genotoxic agents. The genome of D. radiodurans was sequenced in XXXX by the DOE JGI to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this extreme phenotype and to provide a toolbox for developing a bioremediation technology for the cleanup of millions of cubic meters of soil and billions of liters of groundwater that have been contaminated by leaking radioactive waste. While working in the laboratory of Michael Daly at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda (MD). Matthias was particularly interested in the relationships between the genes of D. radiodurans and the organism's extreme radiation resistance, desiccation resistance, and thermotolerance. Some of this work has been published in the journal Science (Science, 2004; 306 (5698): 1025).