Former employees




Dr. ing. Sofie Lodens
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant - Project Acquisition Coordinator
Glycolipid engineering:
Characterized and optimized the sophorolipid production pathway of Pseudohyphozyma bogoriensis to obtain high titers of branched sophorolipids. Also to this end, the molecular tool set for Starmerella bombicola was expanded with a promotor library which can be used for metabolic engineering to produce all kinds of new SL production strains.

Obtained her doctoral degree on 8th September 2020
ir. Anke Goormans
Ginkgo Bioworks - Strain Engineer III
Complex carbohydrate synthesis:
Examined the long-term genomic stability of engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Principles were applied for the production of complex carbohydrates with applications in e.g. infant nutrition and nutraceuticals.
Isabelle Maryns
Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of specialty carbohydrates. Was active on the Carbosurf H2020-BBI-JU project.
Dr. ir Nico Snoeck
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant - Business Development Manager
Complex carbohydrate synthesis:
Developed a fast genome editing tool to create a biotechnological production platform for the synthesis of complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins. These compounds have applications in food, feed and pharmaceutical industries as nutraceuticals and vaccines.

Obtained his doctoral degree on 14th February 2020
Dr. Marilyn De Graeve
Post Doc at Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety
Glycolipid engineering & lipidomics:
Optimized modified Starmerella bombicola strains for the production of glycolipids. By means of lipidomics, the detailed lipid composition of the whole cell was determined, as well as the effects of genetic modifications and different production conditions on the present lipophilic compounds. By merging lipidomics data to other information (genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics data), a metabolic network was made.

Obtained her doctoral degree on 26th April 2019
Dr. ir. Lisa Van Renterghem
Biogazelle
Biosurfactants & applications:
Applied an integrated bioprocess design strategy for the production of new-to-nature glycolipids with genetically engineered S. bombicola strains. In this strategy, the entire innovation chain was considered: from genetic engineering to medium optimization, fermentation and downstream processing, to final application testing.

Obtained her doctoral degree on 23th November 2018
Dr. ir. Thomas Decoene
Inbiose - Senior Research Associate
Was active on the BioNANA (IWT O&O) project.
ir. Hannes Decadt
VUB - PhD student
Was active on the BioNANA (IWT O&O) project
Barbara Toch
Coordination Assistant
Dr. ir. Barbara Danneels
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant
Assisted the course 'Industrial biotechnology' (1e Ma Bio-ir).
Isabelle Van de Velde
Glycolipid engineering:
Investigated the capabilities of Starmerella bombicola to produce interesting fatty acid derived products.
Dr. ir. Tim Devlamynck
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant - Project coordinator
Enzymatic glycosylation:
Applied glucansucrase enzymes for the synthesis of various bioactive glycosides, e.g. steviol glycosides with improved taste and phenolic glycosides with anti-oxidant properties. Strategies used to optimize the glycosylation reactions were reaction -and enzyme engineering.

Obtained his doctoral degree on 27th October 2017.



Dr. ir. Robin Geys
Agrosavfe - Senior researcher manufacturing
Glycolipid engineering:
Applied metabolic engineering and process engineering for the production of novel kinds of glycolipids with Starmerella bombicola. Besides this, a more fundamental approach was undertaken to understand regulation, expression and other aspects of this yeast and its related species.

Obtained his doctoral degree on 17th February 2017.
ir. Jelle Remmery
Glycolipid engineering
Harnessing the oxidative power of Starmerella bombicola to further tune this organism into a platform for the production of several fatty acid derived biochemicals. Furthermore an expansion of the molecular toolkit to enable fast, efficient and high throughput engineering is tackled.
Dr. ir. Sofie Dobbelaere
Sofie Dobbelaere has been doing research in the field of plant biotechnology and applied microbiology. Through several national and international projects she gained expertise in the field of biofuels, biorefineries and the biobased economy. Since 2009 she is active as technological adviser for the biobased economy, advising companies who want to switch from fossil-based to biobased production. Since 2012 she is also Managing Director of Flanders Biobased Valley. At the European level she is active in the Bio-economy pilot of Vanguard, where she is coordinating the pilot case on gas fermentation.
Dr. ir. Sven Dierickx
Glycolipid engineering
Increasing the efficiency and elucidation of the regulatory mechanisms affecting glycolipid production with Starmerella bombicola. For these purposes an integrated multi-omics approach (genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics) is applied which enables the development of rational metabolic engineering strategies.
ir. Yatti De Nijs
RNA stability engineering
Using RNA stability engineering as a fine-regulating tool to align different pathway steps with each other. This strategy will lower metabolic burden onto the host S. cerevisiae and will in the end lead to a more efficient and stable production of interesting molecules.