Enzyme Discovery
Novel enzymes unlock intricate reactions to produce unique molecules in the production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)
Why novel enzymes?
- Innovation - A uniquely developed enzyme offers a host of advantages. The activity and specificity of an enzyme can be developed to meet the distinct substrate, process and end product requirements. Developing novel enzymes enables innovation for the next generation of vaccines, medicines and pharmaceuticals.
- Intellectual Property & FTO - Developing novel enzymes can allow customers to protect their R&D and innovations through intellectual property. A protein sequence with an identity less than 90-95% can be categorised as novel and can therefore be protected to exclude competition from their innovative space.
- Efficiencies - Enzymes are intricate proteins, depending on the process and intended application there are functionalities that can be improved through enzyme discovery and evolution techniques. Developing a novel enzyme can improve the efficiency of the enzyme in application, the increased productivity or yields can make significant advantages when applied at commercial scales. Furthermore, the stability of an enzyme can be improved for use in a specific reaction and process.
Enzyme Discovery Technology
The BRAIN BioArchive: A proprietary collection of strains and genetic information enabling identification of enzymes catalysing chemistry like no known enzyme.
The BRAIN SeqPool: A proprietary digital metagenomic database ready for fast and easy in-silico discovery of so far undiscovered enzymes.
Increasing success rate: Custom-made DNA libraries can be generated from rationally selected or enriched biodiversity according to the customer’s requirements.
For more information on the technologies and techniques available for discovering novel enzymes for your application, click below:
Protein Engineering
Protein engineering is the technique of developing proteins with increased added value through making alterations to its amino acid sequence improving its functionality or suitability to a given application or process. Focussing on rational design and directed evolution, we utilise sequence-function and structure-function to identify key relationships for targeted protein design. Alternatively PCR and random gene mutagenesis can be utilised to make alterations to the protein. One or a combination of both engineering techniques can be deployed to ensure a fast and cost effective process for developing a novel enzyme designed for success in your application.
Entire protein engineering projects: We handle the entire package - from protein design to in-depth characterisation of enzyme variants.
Not limited to one method: We combine different effective methods and use a solution-oriented engineering approach with the application goal firmly in mind.
Difficult challenges welcome: We work on standard enzyme optimisation projects but also specialise in “difficult enzymes”, e.g. transporters and enzyme cascades that call for more than just a standard assay.
For more information on how protein engineering can be incorporated into your enzyme development projects, click below:
