Dr Thomas Vanhercke
Future Protein Mission - Novel Production Systems lead; Sr. Scientist
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Biography
I am harnessing the awesome power of metabolic engineering, protein engineering and synthetic biology to optimize the production of bespoke metabolites in both crop and microorganisms, with a particular interest in proteins and lipids. My early work focused on the engineering of enzymes that are involved in plant and yeast lipid metabolism using rational protein design and directed evolution. More recently, I have undertaken extensive work on combinatorial metabolic engineering of vegetative plant parts (leaf, stem, root...) to accumulate high levels of valuable plant oils that are normally stored only in certain seeds. These 'fat plants' offer the potential of delivering game-changing oil yields that potentially outperform current oil crops several-fold. Currently, I am extending synthetic biology principles into the plant kingdom to lift plant metabolic engineering and forward/reverse genetics to a high throughput level. Finally, I have expanded my interest into the area of precision fermentation for the production of high-value food ingredients.
In my cross-cutting roles as an Application Domain Leader for the CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform and as the Novel Protein Production Systems Lead for the CSIRO Protein Mission, I manage a broad portfolio of strategic R&D projects at different TRL levels and am establishing a multidisciplinary Precision fermentation/Biomanufacturing research pipeline within CSIRO.
Professional Areas
Current Roles
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CSIRO Future Protein Mission - Novel protein Production Systems lead
R&D portfolio management - Focus on Horizon 2/1 impact delivery -
Group Leader - Synthetic Traits
Synthetic Biology in agriculture & Food
Academic Qualifications
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2005
PhD in Applied Biological Sciences: Cell and Gene Biotechnology
Gent University / Bayer BioScience -
1999
Bio-Engineer (MSc) in Cell and Gene Biotechnology
Gent University
Professional Experiences
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2020-2022
Application Domain Leader - Agriculture & Food Synthetic Biology
CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform -
2019-2019
Group Leader (acting)
CSIRO Agriculture & Food -
2013-current
Research Scientist
CSIRO Agriculture & Food -
2012-2013
Research Project Officer
CSIRO Plant Industry -
2006-2011
Postdoctoral Fellow
CSIRO Plant Industry -
2004-2005
Junior Scientist
Bayer BioScience -
1999-2004
PhD
Bayer BioScience
Publications
We have publications by Dr Thomas Vanhercke