Filamentous Fungi: Biology and Biotechnology

• Understand what a fungus is.
• Describe and sketch the key morphological structures and life cycles in industrial important fungi and fungal model systems.
• Predict the possibilities for fungal growth (qualitatively and quantitatively).
• Understand the underlying processes in fungal cell biology and genetics.
• Design experiments in fungal genetics/strain development/synthetic biology and interpret data.
• Devise strategies for construction of a fungal cell factory with specific properties.
• Describe and analyze the interactions between fungi and plants, mammals and bacteria.
• Predict the possibilities for production of mycotoxins and evaluate the toxicological aspects of unwanted mold growth in food and biotechnological products.
• Retrieve and interpret data from on-line databases on fungal bioinformatics.
• Identify and characterize important molds to species level by multidisciplinary methods.
• Assess a mycological subject within industry and pathology, and present the subject to people with mycological experience at an advanced level.
• Create and present a scientific topic in a poster to an audience.

Fungal physiology and life cycles. Fungal cell biology and genetics. Experience with fungal micro- and macro-morphology. Microbial ecology. Secondary metabolism and toxicological aspects. The role of fungi in bacterial, plant and mammalian systems. Fungi in industry. Fungi that cause quality loss of foods, feed and may contaminate biotechnological productions. Fungi that compromise indoor climate. Technological characteristics of common filamentous fungi. Fungal genomics and genome driven discovery. Synthetic biology and construction of fungal cell factories.

27026/27051, or equivalent basic prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbiology. Knowledge of the methods and paradigms in molecular microbiology to follow a discussion amongst professionals and read relevant literature. Master the basic experimental skills in molecular microbiology. Insight in the functional and species diversity of microorganisms (bacteria, Archaea, and fungi) to understand their positive and negative roles in the environment – including the human body, and their potential application in biotechnology.

Lectures and group work online

Minimum: 15, Maximum: 80.

Please be aware that this course has a minimum requirement for the number of participants needed, in order for it to be held. If these requirements are not met, then the course will not be held. Furthermore, there is a limited number of seats available. If there are too many applicants, a pool will be created for the remainder of the qualified applicants, and they will be selected at random. You will be informed 8 days before the start of the course, whether you have been allocated a spot.