Overview
Background
Birgitta Ebert’s research focuses on developing biotechnology concepts to address critical challenges such as pollution, climate change and overexploitation of natural resources.
She specializes in improving microbial catalysts for eco-friendly chemical and material production by leveraging metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, systems analysis, and modelling. Her goal is to create microbial cell factories that convert renewable resources and waste into valuable products, reducing reliance on petrochemicals. She collaborates closely with chemists and chemical engineers to enhance the integration of chemical and biological processes for improved efficiency and sustainability.
Birgitta has a background in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Systems Biotechnology from TU Dortmund University (Germany). She led a research group in Systems Metabolic Engineering at the Institute of Applied Microbiology at RWTH Aachen University (Germany) from 2012 to 2019. In 2016, she expanded her expertise in Synthetic Biology by joining the Keasling lab at the University of California in Berkeley and the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville (USA).
Since April 2019, she has been at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland, applying her expertise to engineer microbial cell factories for fermentation-based manufacturing.
Availability
- Dr Birgitta Ebert is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, TU Dortmund University
Research interests
-
Microbial Biotechnology
-
Synthetic Biology
-
Systems Metabolic Engineering
-
Bioeconomy
Works
Search Professor Birgitta Ebert’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Journal Article
Proteome regulation patterns determine Escherichia coli wild-type and mutant phenotypes
Alter, Tobias B., Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2021). Proteome regulation patterns determine Escherichia coli wild-type and mutant phenotypes. mSystems, 6 (2) e00625-20. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00625-20
2021
Journal Article
Corrigendum: Multi-Omics Analysis of Fatty Alcohol Production in Engineered Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica (Front Genet, (2019), 10, (747), 10.3389/fgene.2019.00747)
Dahlin, Jonathan, Holkenbrink, Carina, Marella, Eko Roy, Wang, Guokun, Liebal, Ulf, Lieven, Christian, Weber, Dieter, McCloskey, Douglas, Wang, Hong-Lei, Ebert, Birgitta E., Herrgård, Markus J., Blank, Lars Mathias and Borodina, Irina (2021). Corrigendum: Multi-Omics Analysis of Fatty Alcohol Production in Engineered Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica (Front Genet, (2019), 10, (747), 10.3389/fgene.2019.00747). Frontiers in Genetics, 11 637738, 1-2. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.637738
2020
Journal Article
High titer methyl ketone production with tailored Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120
Nies, Salome C., Alter, Tobias B., Nölting, Sophia, Thiery, Susanne, Phan, An N.T., Drummen, Noud, Keasling, Jay D., Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2020). High titer methyl ketone production with tailored Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120. Metabolic Engineering, 62, 84-94. doi: 10.1016/j.ymben.2020.08.003
2020
Journal Article
A systems analysis of NADH dehydrogenase mutants reveals flexibility and limits of Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120's metabolism
Nies, Salome C., Dinger, Robert, Chen, Yan, Wordofa, Gossa G., Kristensen, Mette, Schneider, Konstantin, Büchs, Jochen, Petzold, Christopher J., Keasling, Jay D., Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2020). A systems analysis of NADH dehydrogenase mutants reveals flexibility and limits of Pseudomonas taiwanensis VLB120's metabolism. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 86 (11) 3819. doi: 10.1128/aem.03038-19
2020
Journal Article
Publisher Correction: MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing
Lieven, Christian, Beber, Moritz E., Olivier, Brett G., Bergmann, Frank T., Ataman, Meric, Babaei, Parizad, Bartell, Jennifer A., Blank, Lars M., Chauhan, Siddharth, Correia, Kevin, Diener, Christian, Dräger, Andreas, Ebert, Birgitta E., Edirisinghe, Janaka N., Faria, José P., Feist, Adam M., Fengos, Georgios, Fleming, Ronan M. T., García-Jiménez, Beatriz, Hatzimanikatis, Vassily, van Helvoirt, Wout, Henry, Christopher S., Hermjakob, Henning, Herrgård, Markus J., Kaafarani, Ali, Kim, Hyun Uk, King, Zachary, Klamt, Steffen, Klipp, Edda ... Zhang, Cheng (2020). Publisher Correction: MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing. Nature Biotechnology, 38 (4), 504-504. doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0477-4
2020
Journal Article
MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing
Lieven, Christian, Beber, Moritz E., Olivier, Brett G., Bergmann, Frank T., Ataman, Meric, Babaei, Parizad, Bartell, Jennifer A., Blank, Lars M., Chauhan, Siddharth, Correia, Kevin, Diener, Christian, Dräger, Andreas, Ebert, Birgitta E., Edirisinghe, Janaka N., Faria, José P., Feist, Adam M., Fengos, Georgios, Fleming, Ronan M. T., García-Jiménez, Beatriz, Hatzimanikatis, Vassily, van Helvoirt, Wout, Henry, Christopher S., Hermjakob, Henning, Herrgård, Markus J., Kaafarani, Ali, Kim, Hyun Uk, King, Zachary, Klamt, Steffen, Klipp, Edda ... Zhang, Cheng (2020). MEMOTE for standardized genome-scale metabolic model testing. Nature Biotechnology, 38 (3), 272-276. doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0446-y
2020
Journal Article
Pseudomonas mRNA 2.0: Boosting gene expression through enhanced mRNA stability and translational efficiency
Neves, Dário, Vos, Stefan, Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2020). Pseudomonas mRNA 2.0: Boosting gene expression through enhanced mRNA stability and translational efficiency. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 7 458, 458. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00458
2019
Journal Article
Microfluidic irreversible electroporation — a versatile tool to extract intracellular contents of bacteria and yeast
Rockenbach, Alexander, Sudarsan, Suresh, Berens, Judith, Kosubek, Michael, Lazar, Jaroslav, Demling, Philipp, Hanke, René, Mennicken, Philip, Ebert, Birgitta E., Blank, Lars M. and Schnakenberg, Uwe (2019). Microfluidic irreversible electroporation — a versatile tool to extract intracellular contents of bacteria and yeast. Metabolites, 9 (10) 211, 211. doi: 10.3390/metabo9100211
2019
Journal Article
Multi-omics analysis of fatty alcohol production in engineered yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica
Dahlin, Jonathan, Holkenbrink, Carina, Morella, Eko Roy, Wang, Guokun, Liebal, Ulf, Lieven, Christian, Weber, Dieter, McCloskey, Douglas, Ebert, Birgitta E., Herrgard, Markus J., Blank, Lars Mathias and Borodina, Irina (2019). Multi-omics analysis of fatty alcohol production in engineered yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica. Frontiers in Genetics, 10 (JUL) 747. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00747
2019
Journal Article
Evaluation of pyruvate decarboxylase‐negative Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for the production of succinic acid
Zahoor, Ahmed, Küttner, Felix T. F., Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2019). Evaluation of pyruvate decarboxylase‐negative Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for the production of succinic acid. Engineering in Life Sciences, 19 (10) elsc.201900080, 711-720. doi: 10.1002/elsc.201900080
2019
Journal Article
Determination of growth-coupling strategies and their underlying principles
Alter, Tobias B. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2019). Determination of growth-coupling strategies and their underlying principles. BMC Bioinformatics, 20 (1) 447, 447. doi: 10.1186/s12859-019-2946-7
2019
Journal Article
Elevated temperatures do not trigger a conserved metabolic network response among thermotolerant yeasts
Lehnen, Mathias, Ebert, Birgitta E. and Blank, Lars M. (2019). Elevated temperatures do not trigger a conserved metabolic network response among thermotolerant yeasts. BMC Microbiology, 19 (1) 100, 100. doi: 10.1186/s12866-019-1453-3
2019
Journal Article
The transcriptome and flux profiling of Crabtree‐negative hydroxy acid producing strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals changes in the central carbon metabolism
Jessop‐Fabre, Mathew M, Dahlin, Jonathan, Biron, Mathias B, Stovicek, Vratislav, Ebert, Birgitta E, Blank, Lars M, Budin, Itay, Keasling, Jay D and Borodina, Irina (2019). The transcriptome and flux profiling of Crabtree‐negative hydroxy acid producing strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals changes in the central carbon metabolism. Biotechnology Journal, 14 (9) 1900013, 1900013. doi: 10.1002/biot.201900013
2019
Journal Article
Aromatisation of bio-derivable isobutyraldehyde over HZSM-5 zeolite catalysts
Deischter, Jeff, Schute, Kai, Neves, Dario S., Ebert, Brigitta E., Blank, Lars M. and Palkovits, Regina (2019). Aromatisation of bio-derivable isobutyraldehyde over HZSM-5 zeolite catalysts. Green Chemistry, 21 (7), 1710-1717. doi: 10.1039/c9gc00483a
2018
Journal Article
CO2 to succinic acid – Estimating the potential of biocatalytic routes
Liebal, Ulf W., Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2018). CO2 to succinic acid – Estimating the potential of biocatalytic routes. Metabolic Engineering Communications, 7 e00075, e00075. doi: 10.1016/j.mec.2018.e00075
2018
Journal Article
Discovery and Evaluation of Biosynthetic Pathways for the Production of Five Methyl Ethyl Ketone Precursors
Tokic, Milenko, Hadadi, Noushin, Ataman, Meric, Neves, Dário, Ebert, Birgitta E., Blank, Lars M., Miskovic, Ljubisa and Hatzimanikatis, Vassily (2018). Discovery and Evaluation of Biosynthetic Pathways for the Production of Five Methyl Ethyl Ketone Precursors. ACS Synthetic Biology, 7 (8), 1858-1873. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00049
2018
Journal Article
A breath of information: the volatilome
Mansurova, M., Ebert, Birgitta E., Blank, Lars M. and Ibáñez, Alfredo J. (2018). A breath of information: the volatilome. Current Genetics, 64 (4), 959-964. doi: 10.1007/s00294-017-0800-x
2018
Journal Article
Physiologic and metabolic characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals limitations in the synthesis of the triterpene squalene
Ebert, Birgitta E, Czarnotta, Eik and Blank, Lars M (2018). Physiologic and metabolic characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals limitations in the synthesis of the triterpene squalene. FEMS Yeast Research, 18 (8) foy077. doi: 10.1093/femsyr/foy077
2018
Journal Article
Genetic Optimization Algorithm for Metabolic Engineering Revisited
Alter, Tobias, Blank, Lars and Ebert, Birgitta (2018). Genetic Optimization Algorithm for Metabolic Engineering Revisited. Metabolites, 8 (2) 33, 33. doi: 10.3390/metabo8020033
2018
Book Chapter
Multi-capillary column ion mobility spectrometry of volatile metabolites for phenotyping of microorganisms
Halbfeld, Christoph, Baumbach, Jörg Ingo, Blank, Lars M. and Ebert, Birgitta E. (2018). Multi-capillary column ion mobility spectrometry of volatile metabolites for phenotyping of microorganisms. Synthetic metabolic pathways: methods and protocols. (pp. 229-258) New York, NY, United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7295-1_15
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Birgitta Ebert is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Engineering Saccharomyces cerevisiae for triterpenoid production
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Exploiting plant biosynthesis to produce vaccine adjuvants
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Bioengineered lignin conversion into high-performance fibre monomers
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Muxina Konarova
-
Doctor Philosophy
Growth coupled lignin monomer conversion to butadiene by engineered Pseudomonas putida
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Muxina Konarova
-
Doctor Philosophy
Microbial fatty acid derivative production from CO2-derived C2 intermediates
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Esteban Marcellin
-
Doctor Philosophy
Redesigning Carbon Flux: Growth-Coupled Lignin Valorisation and the Emergence of Synthetic Chemolithoheterotrophy in Pseudomonas putida
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Esteban Marcellin
-
Doctor Philosophy
Advancing lignin valorisation: refining sustainable and bio-upgradable mono-phenolics for synthesis of high-performance fibre
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Muxina Konarova, Ms Ping Chen
-
Doctor Philosophy
Engineering Eubacterium limosum for Enhanced CO2 Fixation via rational genome-scale
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr James Heffernan, Professor Esteban Marcellin
Completed supervision
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Novel terpene based agrochemicals: Exploring cytochromes P450 mediated diversification of the strigolactone structure
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Elizabeth Gillam
-
2022
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding terpenoid metabolism in cyanobacteria
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Gary Schenk
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Birgitta Ebert directly for media enquiries about:
- Bioeconomy
- Industrial Biotechnology
- Metabolic Engineering
- Synthetic Biology
- Systems Biotechnology
Need help?
For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team: