Lars Mathias Blank

Lars Mathias Blank, (born 27 November 1969 in Hilden, Germany) is a German engineer, biologist, and professor at RWTH Aachen University, and head of its Institute of Applied Microbiology.

Career

Blank studied Chemical Engineering from 1990 to 1997 at the TU Dortmund University and Biology from 1992 to 1997 at the Ruhr University of Bochum (Germany). For his master's, he worked in Metabolic Engineering in the group of E. T. Papoutsakis at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, and in yeast cell biology in the group of Prof. W.-H. Kunau at Ruhr University Bochum. For his Ph.D., he worked for Prof. L. K. Nielsen at the Biotech Centre of the University of Queensland, Australia (1998 to 2002), where he developed a continuous process for hyaluronic acid production using lactic acid bacteria. During his Ph.D., he worked as a visiting scientist at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Lyngby, Denmark, from September to December 1999. From November 2004 until June 2011, Blank led the group 'Systems Biotechnology' at the Laboratory of Chemical Biotechnology of Prof. A. Schmid at the TU Dortmund University and was a senior research fellow at the Leibniz Institute of Analytical Sciences (ISAS) in Dortmund. In January 2010, he finalized his Habilitation. In July 2011, Blank became professor, chair of Applied Microbiology, and head of the Institute of Applied Microbiology (iAMB) at RWTH Aachen University. Blank coordinated the EU project ‘P4SB – From plastic waste to plastic value using Pseudomonas putida Synthetic Biology‘ and is the coordinator of the Horizon 2020 EU project ‘MIX-UP – Mixed plastics biodegradation and upcycling using microbial communities‘.

Research

In his research, Blank focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of microbial metabolism. Of specific interest is the interaction between the metabolic network and the introduced genetic and environmental perturbations. Research on in silico/in vivo metabolic network operation aims to deepen understanding of cell function, with the ultimate goal of rational cell engineering. He is associate editor of renowned international journals such as Engineering in Life Sciences, Microbial Biotechnology, Fungal Biology and Biotechnology, Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Metabolic Engineering, and Metabolic Engineering Communication.

Awards & Fellowships

• Elected board member of the IMES - International Metabolic Engineering Society (since 2023)
• 'FAMOS for Family’ award of the RWTH Aachen University, Germany (2018)
• 1st prize in the category ‘transfer’ and runner up in the category ‘life sciences’ of the competition ‘NRW Inventing the Future’ of PROvendis – R. Wichmann, T. Tiso, B. Küppers, F. Rosenau, A. Wittgens, and L. M. Blank, Dortmund, Germany – 10,000€ (2014)
• Senior lecturer (2007) and guest professor of Systems Biotechnology at the TU Graz, Austria (since 2012)
• Postdoctoral scholarship of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2003–2004)
• Scholarship for tuition fees of the Chemical Engineering Department and living expenses of the University of Queensland, Australia (1998–2002)
• Martin Schmeisser Scholarship of the TU Dortmund University (1997)

Publications

A full list of his publications is available online.

External links

• Personal Homepage
• Homepage of the Institute