Carlsberg Research Center is integrating a broad panel of scientific competences to create novel opportunities within three strategic focus areas:

Malting, brewing and fermentation
Biotechnological production processes

Scientific Competencies:

Yeast Genetics and Physiology
Yeast Physiology
The project investigates how genes control the responses of the yeast to changes in the environment. This has led to the discovery of a signalling system for sensing amino acids outside the yeast cell, and important features of how it works has been identified. The project also try to identify genes and mutations that make the yeast more resistant to stressing conditions in the brewery.

Structural Chemistry
X-Ray Crystallography of Proteins
Molecular structures can be visualized by X-ray diffraction techniques. Structural properties of proteins relevant to barley and yeast metabolism and cellular interactions are being investigated to characterize metabolic pathways, the enzymatic mechanisms and intermolecular interactions. The structural studies focus on lipid metabolizing enzymes, lipid processing enzymes and cell adhesion molecules.

NMR of carbohydrates and Natural products
The focus is to develop and apply modern Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods to the structure elucidations of complex carbohydrates and other biomolecules. This includes both primary structure elucidation and investigations of conformation, dynamics and interactions with other molecules.

Carbohydrate Chemistry
The focus of research is the application of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry to problems in cell biology. The complex carbohydrates of eukaryotic cells, when covalently linked to proteins and lipids, are now known to mediate a large number of important physiological processes. These molecules act as recognition markers in phenomena as diverse as the intracellular targeting of newly biosynthesized glycoproteins and cell-cell recognition and differentiation.

Beer Quality
Carlsberg Research Laboratory masters advanced analytical techniques (e.g. gas- and liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, immunological techniques) for characterization of beer with focus on beer flavour, flavour stability, chemical stability and beer foam. The analyses are used - in combination with organoleptical characterization - for studying the effect of various raw materials, yeast strains or brewing processes on the composition of the beer.
Brewing Chemistry
Beer Quality / Analytical Chemistry
Brewing Quality Analysis

Breeding of Yeast including GMO
This expertise includes classical methods such as crossbreeding and mutagenesis to improve yeast fermentation behaviour as well as beer flavour. Genetic engineering as a more direct tool to study the significance of specific metabolic pathways is employed.

Breeding of Barley including GMO
This expertise includes commercially oriented research in the biochemical pathways of barley, as well as the development of elite barley varieties using mutagenesis combined with conventional breeding techniques. Other research goals include the generation of transgenic plants which synthesise brewing enzymes during malting.

Brewing Quality Analyses
A number of advanced instrumental analytical methods such as metals and anions in water, acids in hop products, fermentable carbohydrates in wort and beer, iso-acids in beer and an aroma profile of beer (comprising sulphur compounds and esters and alcohols) are provided in order to secure a high and consistent quality of the products of the Carlsberg breweries.

Enzyme Knowledge
This expertise includes areas of protein engineering, expression and secretion technology. Focus is on brewing enzymes that degrade cell walls (glucanases and xylanases), starch (amylases) and proteins (proteases).

Food and Feed
The use of brewing enzymes under alternative conditions, for example in the areas of baking, fruit juice preparation or in the production of paper and pulp are potential application areas. More efficient use of available resource could be obtained by incorporating enzymes in feed.

Pilot Brewery
The pilot brewery is used to evaluate and develop raw materials and the process for wort production. After fermentation, further analyses and taste testing are performed. New yeast strains produced by traditional breeding or by genetic engineering (for experimental purposes only) are also being tested. Beer stabilisation and beer filtration, with and without the use of kieselguhr, are other areas of expertise.