Dr. Stefan Schillberg is head of the department for Plant Biotechnology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Aachen, Germany (50 employees). He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the RWTH Aachen University in 1994. Current activities in his laboratory focus on production of pharmaceutical protein in plants, metabolic engineering of plant biosynthesis pathways, phytoremediation and the engineering of novel agronomic traits in crop plants. Dr. Schillberg has written 39 peer-reviewed scientific publications, published 30 book chapters and holds 9 filed or granted patents. At the managerial level, Dr. Schillberg has extensive experience in project acquisition and management, technology and information management, the supervision of large groups, marketing, strategic planning and filing intellectual property.

Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME). Over the last three years the Fraunhofer IME has established a brand new 33 million Euro institute building in Aachen, Germany, which was opened in spring 2006.

This institute comprises 5400 m2 of laboratory and office space and 1000 m2 of greenhouses. The Fraunhofer IME maintains the most advanced equipment for molecular biology research, protein chemistry, protein engineering, protein production, protein purification and analysis as well as analysis of metabolites including fatty acids. The Fraunhofer is equipped to provide customers and research partners with support that ranges from plant and animal tissue culture to high throughput DNA sequence analysis and biorobotic project automation and biochip development.

Its investment in infrastructure ensures that all major life science technologies are available on the IME campus, enabling us to offer a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to our project partners.

The Department of Plant Biotechnology has exploited enzyme overexpression and inactivation using plant-derived antibodies to manipulate metabolic pathways in transgenic plants. Importantly, metabolic pathways have been partially established in non-native cell compartments resulting in significantly improved metabolite accumulation.

The department has received major funding for projects in the field of industrial biotechnology with the aim of using biocatalysis and biotransformation to provide building blocks for chemical applications. In this context, the department has enlarged its processing and analytical capacity. New activities focus on the genetic engineering of Jatropha and the establishment of suitable transformation procedures for this plant.

Overview of Presentation
Traditionally Jatropha plants are used to reclaim land and simultaneously produce feedstuff, soap, cosmetics, pesticides and anti-cancer medicine. Recently, Jatropha received much attention for its high content of seed oil. Jatropha seed oil possesses a high potential as diesel oil substitute due to its higher flash point and cetane number as well as the excellent cold flow properties when compared e.g. to palm oil. Consequently, Jatropha has been exploited for biodiesel production and the first commercial production plant has been established in Hyderabad, India. But the commercial-scale cultivation of Jatropha, which has not previously been grown as a crop, raises several significant challenges. Compared to other oil crops biomass productivity is rather low. Several research groups work on the improvement of Jatropha through conventional selection or breeding programs. Application of biotechnology will expedite this process. Importantly, biomass and oil yield can be improved by exploiting genetic engineering focusing on the optimization of enzymes involved in oil biosynthesis and biomass production. However, a prerequisite for the implementation of genetic manipulation of Jatropha is the establishment of a robust and efficient transformation procedure. The presentation will focus on recent developments in establishing a transformation procedure for Jatropha and present strategies to improve oil quality and yield by genetic engineering.

The above mentioned expert shared his insights at JatrophaWorld Jakarta 2008, which was held on 23-24 January 2008 & welcomed over 350 Jatropha experts, industry players and entrepreneurs from 40 countries, making it the single largest Jatropha business forum in the world. JatrophaWorld Miami 2008, the second conference in the series will be held on 9-11 June 2008 in beautiful downtown Miami. Visit www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha/attend to REGISTER TODAY for this exciting second conference in the series.