PhD defence by Thies Gülck

It is with great pleasure we announce the PhD defence of Thies Gülck

All are welcome!

Title: High Times for Pathway Discovery

Summary: Phytocannabinoids are a diverse group bio-active natural products found in flowering plants like Cannabis sativa, some liverworts and a few fungi. In humans, they interact with endocannabinoid receptors, ligand-gated ion channels and transcription factors making them potent sources for medicine and popular recreational drugs. In fact, phytocannabinoids are very effective in the treatment of neuropathic pain, chemotherapy-associated nausea, anxiety and AIDS-related loss of appetite. Unfortunately, only few phytocannabinoids are accessible in sufficient amounts that enable clinical trials or product development. My research addresses this issue through the advancement of biotechnological production methods such as heterologous biosynthesis. Heterologous biosynthesis means constructing a biosynthetic pathway in an organism other than the original producer and has the potential to make greater quantities of rare phytocannabinoids accessible. This requires in-depth knowledge of the involved enzymes, their encoding genes, regulation and subcellular localization. In this thesis, I present gene discovery of cannabigerolic acid synthase, the last unknown step in cannabinoid biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa. Furthermore, we use this gene to bioengineer the heterologous hosts Nicotiana benthamiana (tobacco) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) towards production of cannabinoids. Our bioengineering work includes biotechnological glycosylation of cannabinoids in yeast. This achievement expands the chemical space within cannabinoids and increases the prospects for cannabinoids as drug leads.

Supervisors:
Professor Birger Lindberg Møller, Plant Biochemistry
Postdoc Nethaji Janeshawari Gallage, Plant Biochemistry

Assessment committee:
Associate Professor Thomas Vogt, Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Halle, Germany
Professor Emeritus Rob Verpoorte, Leiden University, Netherlands
Professor Poul Erik Jensen, FOOD (chair)

Reception afterwards in the 117 rooms.