Biocatalysis

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Andreas Schmid / Prof. Dr. Joerg Pietruszka

The biotechnological production of valuable synthons, like enantiopure or selectively functionalized small molecules, can be achieved with isolated enzymes but also with whole cell biocatalysts. For the successful implementation of a biocatalyst is a deep process understanding essential. Non-natural substrates are consistently a great challenge. Often it is necessary to change the selectivity of the biocatalysts and adapt its activity without reducing the overall stability. Biocatalyst screening is important to overcome limitations and increase applicability of biocatalyst as catalyst in in vitro and fermentative processes. Productivity and flux increases will allow optimization of cofactor dependent processes; the use of regeneratable carbon sources for cofactor recycling will contribute to sustainability like higher energy efficiency and implementation of heterolog cofactor dependent enzymes will. The „Biocatalysis” platform combines the expertise from academia, research institutes and the industry beyond the areas of biology, chemistry, process engineering, and bioinformatics.