Research

Project "Flame retardant treatment of wood using supercritical carbon dioxide" (FFG, Bridge-1 program, project number FO999903628) is a network project between BOKU, Kompetenzzentrum Wood KPlus and the companies NATEX (Austria) and Fritz Kohl GmbH & Co. KG. The impregnation of technical veneers with high-performance flame retardants using supercritical CO2 as a carrier medium is to be investigated with the aim of using these veneers in aircraft, automobile and shipbuilding. In the 3-year's project, R&D work is carried out in 4 central work packages (in addition to the APs Management and Dissemination). Based on a comprehensive literature study (WP 2) on P- and N-containing high-performance flame retardants, accompanying experiments investigating their dissolution and transport behavior in scCO2 as well as experiments targeting the introduction of functional groups for improved solubility or chemical fixation in wood, a selection of promising flame retardants for further work in WP 3-5 will be made. For these compounds, investigations into the solubility and transport behavior in scCO2 will be carried out in AP 3. This work allows the identification of particularly promising FSM and impregnation conditions (p, T, relaxation regime). Subsequently, tests are carried out to impregnate wood veneers, technical veneers and small solid wood samples in order to evaluate the loading success qualitatively and quantitatively. Accordingly, these tests are accompanied by comprehensive analysis, which serves to demonstrate the homogeneity of the loading, the degree of loading and the influence of the treatment on essential material properties. Data from these experiments can be used to draw important conclusions about improving process control. Finally, in WP 5, flame protection-relevant, mechanical, olfactory, morphological and colorimetric parameters will be collected for selected samples in order to finally evaluate the practical suitability of scCO2-supported impregnation of wood veneers and its transfer to solid wood. .

The final sensorial quality of a wine is the result of a multitude of interactions between all the chemical components within the wine and specific environmental factors such as the temperature of the wine. Since influenced by numerous factors such as grape varieties, growing conditions, climate change, yeast strains, wine making technologies, human experiences, the evaluation and preservation of wine quality – in terms of reproducibility from year to year - is nowadays the main challenge for both wine producers and wine science community. Viticultural practices aim primarily at producing high quality grapes that would reflect varietal flavours and aromas and/or characters typical for a specific region or terroir. In Austria, Districtus Austriae Controllatus (DAC) is a classification for regionally typical quality wine that provides products of distinction in wine market. An accurate evaluation and assessment of the wine quality, identity and typicity is of high significance for vintners to perform proper wine classification and target marketing. The aim of this project is on grape and wine quality evaluation, and regional typical quality characterization and prediction using elemental and sensory analysis, non-targeted and targeted metabolomics, spectroscopic approaches, and artificial intelligence. Grape quality is the most important factor for making high quality wine and some grape metabolites can have a strong relation to the wine quality. The relationship between the grape metabolites and the wine quality will be explored using non-targeted metabolomics and spectroscopic approaches and wine quality prediction models generated by artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Of particular focus in this project is providing detailed chemical characterization that elucidates the influence of the Viennese wine growing region (origin) on Viennese Gemischter Satz DAC and Grüner Veltliner. As final output of the project, software, apps and a unique quality mark tag will be developed, for wine quality prediction and authenticity assessment based on established databases. This solution will be designed and developed to prove the identity and authenticity of each bottle and trace them. In turn, the outcomes of this project aim to both support origin marketing and future maintenance of wine production processes and wine quality in Vienna.

Wider research context Of the five human heme peroxidases, evolved to perform widely divergent functions, thyroid peroxidase (TPO) is the least well studied. The multidomain membrane protein catalyses the biosynthesis of thyroid hormones, which are essential for metabolism, growth and development of the human body. With the use of hydrogen peroxide TPO catalyses the iodination and coupling of tyrosine residues on the surface of thyroglobulin (TG) in the thyroid gland. However, there are open questions about substrate selectivity, biochemical characteristics, the coupling mechanism and the roles of the individual domains. Critically, TPO is at the core of two autoimmune thyroid diseases that combined afflict nearly 150 million people but the only two clinically approved TPO inhibitors are not specific. Objectives This project will elucidate the biochemical and structural characteristics of TPO. The main goals are (I) understanding the kinetics and substrate specificity of TPO, (II) provide structural data of TPO alone and of relevant ligated states and (III) clarify the mode of action of TPO inhibitors. Approach In preliminary work an expression and purification protocol for truncated TPO variants was established. Importantly, it was found that it is possible to reconstitute and link the heme cofactor even after purification, yielding highly pure and enzymatically active recombinant TPO. This allows the first detailed spectroscopic, thermodynamic and structural study of the enzyme. This will include an analysis of the reaction kinetics of TPO using a range of methods, including stopped-flow UV-vis spectroscopy for pre-steady kinetics, analysis of the interaction with small molecules (i.e. inhibitors, ligands) and TG with thermodynamic and mass spectroscopic assays. Finally, this project aims to solve the X-ray crystal structure of TPO alone and in complex with biologically relevant substrates, ligands and inhibitors. Level of originality TPO is crucial in thyroid hormone biosynthesis. However, to date the available biochemical and structural data is scarce and does not allow (I) a clear rationalization of the structure-function relationship of the active site architecture and TPO reactivity, (II) the role of the additional TPO domains and (III) the design of new more specific inhibitors. This project aims to provide a complete enzymatic and structural characterization of TPO to address these issues. Primary researchers involved Vera Pfanzagl graduated from the international PhD program BioToP at BOKU in 2019. She worked primarily on structure-function relationships of heme enzymes and during her postdoc focused on human heme peroxidases. Within this Fellowship she aims to obtain her habilitation to advance her academic career. She will be supported and coached by Kristina Djinovic-Carugo, a highly recognized expert in structural biology and head of EMBLE Grenoble and Chris Oostenbrink (professor at BOKU), an expert in molecular modelling and simulation.