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The Development of efficient Enzymatic Cascades
in well-coordinated One-Pot-Systems

HOTZYMES will thus contribute to change industrial biotransformations from an unsatisfactory current paradigm (uncoordinated enzyme function, sequential reactions, disposable bioprocesses) into a game-changing breakthrough (coordinated enzyme function, concurrent reactions, recyclable bioprocesses)

CHALLENGES

The biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals and biocommodities relies on enzymes. Indeed, the use of multi-enzymatic processes is considered a promising biomanufacturing platform but with several challenges that need to be solved:

  • cross-reactivity found in enzyme cascades involving two or more enzymes competing for the same substrate.
  • enzyme inactivation or inhibition at unsuitable temperature when using combination of meso and thermophile enzymes.
  • finding optimal reaction conditions without negatively impacting on the stability of products and cofactors.
laboratory

SOLUTION

HOTZYMES’ idea is to provide optimal temperature conditions for each reaction in a multi-step-scheme by coupling enzymes to magnetic nanoparticles that are controllable at nano-scale locally.
Thus, HOTZYMES sets out to develop a new ground-breaking concept to exert functional control over different enzymes using magnetic heating. This will be enabled by an immobilisation of enzymes on magnetic particles, which are exposed to an alternating magnetic field. Due to molecular movement, a desired micro-temperature can be created at the outer layer of the particle, where the catalysts are going to be attached. To ensure an easy separation, re-utilization and integration into bioreactors, these conjugates will be integrated within porous microparticles. To meet this technological break-through, it will be also necessary to design and fabricate a new generation of magnetic bioreactors specific to the field of Biocatalysis.

HOTZYMES started in April 2019 and will last until September 2022, and it is funded in the frame of the H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020 call. The multidisciplinary consortium consists of 7 partners from four European countries, who implement the project with a budget of 3 million Euro. They will answer fundamental questions about the physical mechanisms that govern heat transfer/diffusion between magnetic materials and biomolecules at different spatial scales by bringing together it’s different scientific and technological disciplines and expertise.

The research for this work has received funding from the European Union (EU) project HOTZYMES (grant agreement n° 829162) under  EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme  Research and Innovation actions H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01

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