Nediljko Budisa
Quick Facts
- Date of Birth: 21.11.1966
- Birthplace: Sibenik, Croatia
- Nationality: Croatian
- Family status: Married, two sons
- E-Mail: nediljko.budisa[AT]umanitoba.ca
Nediljko 2014
Education and Degrees
| 2001/10 – 2005/07 | Habilitation, Biochemistry & Protein Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Germany, (Supervisor: Dr. Johannes Buchner) |
| 1993/06 – 1997/06 | Doctorate, Structural Biology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry/Technical University of Munich, (Supervisor: Dr. Robert Huber) |
| 1989/09 – 1993/04 | Master's Equivalent, Molecular Biology and Biophysics University of Zagreb, Croatia (Supervisors: Dr. Željko Kučan, Dr. Greta Pifat). |
| 1986/10 – 1990/07 | Bachelor's Equivalent, Chemistry and Biology University of Zagreb, Croatia (Supervisor: Dr. Dunja Košuta). |
Honors, Prizes, and Recognitions
| 2023 | External Advisor EU-Commission HE-MCSA Consortium BioCatCodeExpander Training Network (Nomination: 2022) |
| 2023 | Mercator Fellow in the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1349 "Fluorine-Specific Interactions", Berlin, Germany (Nomination: 2022) |
| 2018 | Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Chemical Synthetic Biology & Xenobiology from CRC Federal Government Program to establish Synthetic Biology in Manitoba (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada) |
| 2018 | Prize "Excellent location in the land of ideas - 2018" of German Ministry for Regional Development for outstanding and innovative contributions to the development of Bio-adhesives |
| 2017 | Publication Award "Fluorine Chemistry 2017" by German Chemistry Society for outstanding contributions to the development of fluorine biochemistry. |
| 2004 | BioFuture-Award of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany. |
Research Experience and Other Activities
| since 10/2018 | Full Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Chemical Synthetic Biology and Xenobiology at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada) Area of research: Biomaterials & Biosystems Engineering, Genetic Code Expansion, Synthetic Biology, Xenobiology. |
| 10/2018 – 09/2023 | Adjunct Professor at Berlin Institute of Technology / Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin, Germany) Area of research: Biocatalysis, Directed Evolution of Enzymes & Cells |
| 05/2010 – 09/2018 | Full Professor of Biocatalysis at Berlin Institute of Technology / Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin, Germany) Area of research: Biocatalysis, Directed evolution of enzymes & cells, Genetic code expansion, Protein and proteome engineering |
| 05/2005 – 04/2010 | Head of an Independent Junior Research Group (‘Molecular Biotechnology’) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry Area of research: Molecular biotechnology, Genetic code engineering, Metabolic engineering |
| 04/2000 – 04/2005 | Assistant member and Group leader (‘Protein engineering’) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry and Habilitation at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) with Dr. Johannes Buchner Area of research: Genetic code engineering, Protein stability, folding & design |
| 06/1999 – 03/2000 | Research Associate at Proteros Biostructures Ltd., Active contributions to the founding of the start-up in the Innovation Centre in Munich, Germany. Area of research: Protein engineering and design, structural biology. |
| 07/1997 – 05/1999 | Post doctorate researcher in the lab of Dr. Luis Moroder (Bioorganic Chemistry) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry Area of research: Bioorganic & Peptide Chemistry, Protein engineering and design |
General Research Specialization and Expertise
Social, Cultural, Educational, Ethical and Philosophical Aspects of Synthetic Biology and Xenobiology (orthogonal life)
Directed evolution of synthetic enzymes and cells (with classical and machine learning assisted gene library design)
Adaptive laboratory evolution
Biocatalysis Biochemistry Biotechnology Bioorthogonal chemistry Biophysics and biophysical chemistry Classical enzyme engineering Classical peptide and protein chemistry Classical organic and peptide synthesis Genetic code reprogramming & expansion Genome Editing & Gene Integration Molecular Microbiology Metabolic Engineering (Synthetic Metabolism) Non-Canonical Amino Acids (ncAAs) Orthogonal Enzymes and Protein Translation Protein and Proteome Engineering Protein Stability, Folding & Design Synthetic Biology & Xenobiology
Editorials and Editorial Activities
| 2022/11 (ongoing) | Editor-in-Chief and founder of Frontiers in Synthetic Biology, a new journal for Synthetic Biology and related Bioengineering disciplines |
| 2022/12 – 2024/12 | Guest editor, Chemical Reviews, Special Issue "Non-Canonical Amino Acids." |
| 2022/04 – 2023/04 | Guest Editor, Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, Special Issue “Exploring and Expanding the Protein Universe with Non-Canonical Amino Acids” |
| 2020/01 – 2021/06 | Guest Editor, ChemBioChem, Special Collection “Xenobiology 2020” |
| 2020/09 (ongoing) | Academic Editor, Molecules (MDPI), Journal |
| 2018/06 (ongoing) | Academic Editor, Scientific Reports, Journal |
| 2014/09 (ongoing) | Academic Editor, Biotechnology Journal, Journal |
| 2010/06 (ongoing) | Academic Editor, PLoS ONE, Journal |
National and International Inter- and Cross-disciplinary Activities
At the University of Manitoba, Professor Ned Budisa established BioExM as a networking hub for researchers, students, and industry professionals, focusing on structural biology, synthetic biology, and digital biology. He launched the first BioExM meeting on June 21, 2021, at the Fort Garry campus, with over 60 participants from Winnipeg’s academic and industrial sectors. This event showcased BioExM’s research strengths and vision for merging leading research in these fields. Now a well-established network, BioExM fosters collaboration among researchers, students, and industry. Its education branch is currently the most active, with plans to strengthen ties between local science, bioindustry, and synthetic biology at national and international levels.
Reading for more in-depth coverage of the subject
- Boelker, M., Engelhard, M. and Budisa, N. (2016). Synthetic Biology Analyzed - Tools for Discussion and Evaluation. (ed. Engelhard, M.). In Springer Series “Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment”. (ISBN: 978-3-319-25143-1 [print] 978-3-319-25145-5 [Online]). Vol. 44, pp. 1-69; Link
- Schmidt, M., Pei, L. and Budisa, N. (2017) Xenobiology: State-of-the-art, Ethics and Philosophy of new-to-nature organisms. Adv. Biochem. Eng. Biotechnol., 2017, 162, 301–316; doi: 10.1007/10_2016_14
- Budisa, N. and Schmidt, M. (2020) Alternative Biofacts - Life as we don't (yet) know it. In: “Art as we don’t know it “ by Berger, E.; Kasperi Mäki-Reinikka; Kira O’Reilly; Sederholm, H., Eds. Aalto University Publication Series: Helsinki; pp 75-83. (ISBN 9789526088235). Link
- Fehse, B.; Budisa, N.; Reich, J.; Müller-Röber, B.; Walter, J. (2018, in German) In Blick zurück und nach vorne: Entwicklung und aktuelle Herausforderungen in verschiedenen Kernbereichen der Gentechnologie, Vierter Gentechnologiebericht, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: 2018; pp 203-236. Link
- Budisa, N. (2014). Parallele biologische Welt mit genetischer Firewall – Wahrheit oder Dichtung? In: Blickpunkt: Leben: Am Rande des Daseins? (ISBN 3735718450) (Herzog/Bauer/ Lametschwandtner, Hrsg.); Books on Demand; Auflage: 1), in German. pp. 93-106 Link