Rate My Professor Silvan Scheller

Silvan Scheller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems at Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering, where he leads the Biochemistry group. He earned his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2012, receiving the ETH Zurich medal for an outstanding doctoral thesis on methyl-coenzyme M reductase. Following his doctorate, Scheller conducted postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2016 in the Orphan Lab, focusing on microbial geobiology and anaerobic processes. He joined Aalto University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Biochemistry and was promoted to Associate Professor.

Scheller's research centers on designing energy-relevant biochemical conversions, particularly biocatalytic transformations that enable CO2 valorization into renewable fuels using methanogenic archaea. His group employs metabolic engineering of archaea such as Methanosarcina acetivorans and Methanococcus maripaludis, alongside mechanistic enzymology studies on enzymes from Methanothermobacter marburgensis. Key methodologies include genetic tools like CRISPR/Cas12a genome-editing toolboxes, promoter-RBS libraries, and in vitro techniques such as isotope labeling, electrochemistry, NMR, EPR, and DFT calculations. Notable publications include 'Artificial electron acceptors decouple archaeal methane oxidation from sulfate reduction' (Science, 2016), 'The key nickel enzyme of methanogenesis catalyses the anaerobic oxidation of methane' (Nature, 2010), 'In situ visualization of newly synthesized proteins in environmental microbes using amino acid tagging and click chemistry' (Environmental Microbiology, 2014), 'Efficient CRISPR/Cas12a-Based Genome-Editing Toolbox for Metabolic Engineering in Methanococcus maripaludis' (ACS Synthetic Biology, 2022), and 'A growth-based screening strategy for engineering the catalytic activity of an oxygen-sensitive formate dehydrogenase' (2024). Scheller has secured substantial funding, including 1.081 million euros from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation in 2024 for biotechnological CO2 valorization, Academy of Finland grants for projects like BioEle and ExtremoForm, and Research Council of Finland Academy Projects. His work has garnered over 1,700 citations and advances sustainable energy solutions aligned with UN SDGs 7, 12, 13, 14, and 17.