Dr Annegret Honsbein
Postdoctoral Researcher
Hello my name is Annegret Honsbein,
Iobtained my PhD from the University of Glasgow, in the field of plant molecular biology.
Afterwards my interest shifted to Synthetic Biology and in previous postdocs I was involved in two international consortia working on a biological solution for desalinating water and engineering nitrogen fixation into plants, respectively. I also collaborated with industry partners to develop cold-active enzymes for biological washing powder that washes efficiently at cold temperatures.
My expertise is on tool development for the genetic engineering of non-model microbial species including cyanobacteria and the biological recovery of silver from industrial waste streams.
Currently, I’m a postdoc with the newly established Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre where my work focuses on microbe-based technologies for the biological recovery of critical metals (rare earth and platinum group metals) from metal-contaminated waste streams such as mine tailings and industrial sludges.
Public Abstract
Biotechnology makes use of microbes as living biochemical factories to produce e.g. drugs and special proteins called enzymes in a much more environmentally friendly way than pure chemistry could. Microbes are inherently more environmentally friendly as they don’t depend on the toxic ingredients, high temperatures or high pressure that chemistry might need. Enzymes facilitate biochemical reactions and are used in many different industrial applications including pulp and paper production, leather and textiles, food and beverages, biofuels, animal feed, personal care products and laundry detergents. Enzymes are the ingredients in ‘biological’ washing powders that work on removing stains compared to ‘non-biological’ laundry detergents that rely on chemicals alone. Sustainable Biotechnology aims to make processes more energy efficient and less reliant on non-renewable resources, such as oil and mineral ores. Since their development in the 1960s biological washing powders have helped to make washing more energy efficient since they clean as good at 30- 40 degrees than non-biological ones do at 60 degrees. But even more energy to reduce carbon dioxide emission and household costs could be saved, if equally good cleaning results were possible with cold water straight from the tap. We are collaborating with two companies, Unilever and Edinburgh-based Ingenza Ltd, to develop biological washing powder that washes efficiently at cold temperatures.
Scientific Abstract
We are collaborating with two companies, Unilever and Edinburgh-based Ingenza Ltd to develop biological washing powder that washes efficiently at cold temperatures.