At the initiative of Tallinn University of Technology, three international conferences and seminars took place this summer, whose top-level content and wide range of participants confirmed once again TalTech's leading position in the bioeconomy in Estonia and beyond. Topics ranged from cell biology to biomass valorization.
The organizer of all the mentioned conferences and seminars is Tiit Lukk, senior researcher at TalTech's Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology and president of the Estonian Biochemistry Society, according to whom Estonian scientists were able to meet hundreds of colleagues from around the world and listen to dozens of eye-opening presentations in this warm summer of 2022. Among others, colorful speeches by professors Mart Saarma, Andres Salumetsa, Peep Palumaa and many others.
| The FEBS3+ conference was introduced by TalTech Rector Tiit Land
Tallinn University of Technology in a leading role
"The first summer event was the FEBS3+ supported by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, which was held in cooperation with Latvian and Lithuanian biochemistry societies on 15-17 until June at Tallinn University's conference center. Since as a researcher at TalTech I am also the president of the Estonian Biochemistry Society and Katrina Laks, a doctoral student of our institute, is the secretary general of this society, the levers and organization were in our hands," Lukk hints at the leadership role of the Technical University. "That's how a very well-known biochemist, TalTech rector Tiit Land, opened the event. There were more than 200 participants, including 50 oral scientific presentations and slightly less than 80 poster presentations. In addition to scientific presentations from researchers from the Baltic countries and Finland-Sweden, the farthest speaker was from the United States."
See the conference program and topics.
| The FEBS3+ conference was held in cooperation with the Latvian and Lithuanian biochemistry societies on June 15-17, 2022 in Tallinn. Among the speakers were many outstanding scientists, among others academician Mart Saarma.
Busy August for biochemists
While in July the researchers had a rest, in August two big events awaited: Pärnu took place on the 15th-17th until August, another biomass valorization summer seminar, the topics of which are certainly of wider interest in Estonian society both from the point of view of today's crisis and the environment or the green revolution. The three-day seminar was full of long, meaningful presentations from both our well-known researchers and large companies. For example, Viru Keemia Grupp was present, which is increasingly focused on the development of the production complex of bioproducts and also on the more expedient valorization of paper wood.
In the opening session of the summer seminar, presentations were made by Allan Lahi and Rainis Venta from TalTech's entrepreneurship department from the perspective of innovation and technology transfer, respectively. In the second session, Petri-Jaan Lahtvee showed how the bioeconomy value chain can be maximally "activated" locally in Estonia. Tallinn University doctoral student Musa Howlader talked about the possibilities of valorizing natural products obtained from seaweed, Illia Krasnou from the Faculty of Engineering TalTech about cellulose-based plastics of the future, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology researcher Maria Kulp about various possibilities for analyzing the properties of lignocellulose, Tiit Lukk about the use of enzymes in biorefining, Yevgen Karpichev and Mahendra Mohan in biomass synthetic -on the possibilities of organic chemical beneficiation, and Kannan Thirulmalmuthu on the possible cross paths of microbiological beneficiation of lignin.
One of the most exciting lectures was given by Rahul Kumar, who talked about the development of 3D printing of cell factories from the point of view of synthetic biology. A number of researchers from the University of Tartu and the Estonian University of Life Sciences gave presentations, whose topics were related to the microbiological treatment of wood sugars and the development of polyurethanes based on, for example, lignin extracted from biomass. Similar to last year, scientific advisors from various ministries (e.g. Ministry of Education and Culture) also participated in the three-day work seminar.
You can find information about the program and presentations of the summer seminar from here.
| Researchers from all Estonian universities gathered for TalTech's second summer seminar dedicated to biomass valorization, and like last year, advisers from various ministries and industry representatives also took part in the three-day seminar.
The whole crust of Europe was there
In the last week of August (August 24-25), the meeting of the COST action (LignoCOST CA17128) dedicated to lignin valorization was held in Tallinn under the leadership of TalTech, where the top layer of European lignin chemistry and biotechnology science came together. Researchers from a total of 18 countries took part in the event, researchers from TalTech and the University of Tartu were also invited to talk about their research. The sponsor of the event, along with the COST network, was Fibenol, who provided the participants with a nice dinner on the evening of August 23 and a tour of their wood fractionation plant in Imavere on the first day of the meeting.
In summary, it can be said that the aforementioned events are not only important for Estonian biochemists-scientists, but also raise the leadership role of Estonia (including TalTech) to a new level. This confirms that we have many good solutions to offer that the world is very much looking forward to in this era of change. "The work that our researchers have done and are doing is increasingly speaking to the world, which is shown by active participation," emphasizes Tiit Lukk. Whether the summer of 2023 will be as busy for biochemists will soon become clear.
| Researchers from 18 European countries took part in the LignoCOST Network Task Force meeting.
