Understanding and Postponing Yeast Death to Improve Production (UPsYDe)

Research Project, 2026 – 2029

Yeasts are model organisms for eukaryal cell biology studies but are also used to sustainably produce a large variety of compounds. Although unicellular, death spares no one and yeast can undergo regulated cell death (RCD) in response to a wide variety of intra and extracellular signals. In industrial processes, the occurrence of yeast RCD negatively impacts yields and production rates. How yeast cells die under these conditions is however hardly studied nor understood. UPsYDe aims to decipher how yeast cells die under industrial conditions and engineer RCD pathways to postpone cell death and improve production, while simultaneously training the 13 doctoral candidates needed to tackle this kind of challenges. This requires a synergetic approach combining fundamental cell biology, bioprocess engineering, yeast physiology, and systems and synthetic biology. Four different yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Komagataella phaffii, Yarrowia lipolytica and Debaryomyces hansenii, will be studied and engineered in a consortium of 7 beneficiaries and 15 associated partners varying from start-up companies to major biotechnology industries. This consortium offers all the expertise and methodology needed and provides the DCs with a highly diverse, multidisciplinary and intersectorial training plan across Europe. Expected outcomes are novel (rapid) screening techniques to detect cell death phenotypes on site, advanced genome-scale metabolic models, improved yeast strains and more sustainable and profitable yeast bioprocesses. In addition, UPsYDe will deliver the next-generation scientists capable of integrating different knowledge fields to lead the full transition to a sustainable bioeconomy, in academia or industry.