New CD Laboratory helps to tame mould

Black mould is not popular in everyday life, but extremely useful in the industrial production of citric acid: This acid, which is so important for the food and animal feed industry as well as for cosmetics, medicines and cleaning agents and detergents, has been produced for around 100 years by fermenting a sugar-containing nutrient solution with the mould Aspergillus niger. Head of Laboratory Matthias Steiger and his team from the new CD Laboratory for Sustainable bioproduction with fungal systems through targeted strain development at TU Wien are now researching strategies for identifying and using particularly efficient fungal strains with the support of commercial partner Jungbunzlauer Austria AG: Based on this basic research, this process is to be further optimised without genetic engineering and in the interests of sustainability and the circular economy.