Amino acid production via fermentation plays an important role at DEGUSSA. Consequently detailed R&D activities for further optimizing production strains and processes are performed typically concentrating on E. coli or C. glutamicum. These approaches make use of modern lab-scale ‘omics’ technologies as well as of ‘classical’ engineering disciplines to ensure a successful technology transfer from the lab into production.

 This contribution illustrates some of the process developments exemplarily concentrating on efforts for L-Lysine, L-Threonine or L-Valin. Considering L-Lysine, examples will be given for unravelling gene functions of the biosynthetic pathway and for illustrating regulatory networks in C. glutamicum based on a systems biology approach. Metabolome studies will be presented that allowed the identification of metabolic engineering targets in Valin synthesis. Finally the suitability of alternative C-sources will be illustrated for amino acid production.