TUNGSTEN BIOCATALYSIS – HEAVY METAL ENZYMES FOR SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL BIOCATALYSIS

Introduction

Europe needs a sustainable chemical industry which will only be realized by new breakthrough technologies. Industrial biotechnology is established in chemical manufacturing, offering more efficient, more specific, safer, and less energy-demanding production. However, it is held back by the limited number of enzyme classes in industrial use.

Project Overview

This project opens up an important new enzyme class of tungsten-containing enzymes (W-enzymes) which catalyze amazing chemical reactions involving challenging low redox potential reduction reactions. Currently, these enzymes are impossible to obtain economically and on a scale to match industrial needs.

Production Challenges

We need to produce W-enzymes using an industrial workhorse micro-organism such as E. coli. Yet, we discovered that W-cofactor biosynthesis is the bottleneck preventing successful production of W-enzymes in E. coli.

Proposed Solution

We can solve this challenge by using cutting-edge computational enzyme design approaches we recently developed to create a completely new W-cofactor biosynthesis pathway for E. coli.

Expected Outcomes

The W-BioCat strains developed in this project will enable:

1. Expression of new W-enzymes from genetic databases.
2. Facilitation of production of new engineered W-enzymes.

The catalytic potential of these new W-enzymes will be established and implemented in new processes.

Research Focus

Exciting new reaction scopes in biocatalytic CO2 reduction to valuable chemicals and Birch reduction of aromatic compounds will be explored, alongside the already-established and broadly applicable carboxylic acid reductions.

Impact

W-BioCat will be the breakthrough to make W-enzymes accessible for industry. As a proof of concept, a hydrogen-driven process to convert plant-derived oleic acid to the emollient ester oleyl oleate will be created.

Application

Oleyl oleate is used in many cosmetic products used daily by millions of people. This process will be demonstrated in multi-gram yield in scalable, industrially relevant hydrogenation reactors, together with market research to address a pathway to commercialization.