Project

Enzyme biodiscovery pipeline optimisation via toolbox development

Acronym
ENZYMARES
Code
179O07821
Duration
01 September 2021 → 31 August 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: IWT/VLAIO
Promotor-spokesperson
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Biochemistry and metabolism not elsewhere classified
    • Development of bioinformatics software, tools and databases
    • Marine ecology
  • Engineering and technology
    • Biocatalysis and enzyme technology
Keywords
Enzymares
 
Project description

The OVERALL OBJECTIVE of ENZYMARES is to optimize the enzyme discovery pathway, with a specific focus on three stages of the pathway: (1) data collection, (2) algorithm and (3) process performance.  -At the input level, the goal of ENZYMARES is to leverage on the unique functional characteristics of biological resources from (marine) habitats to discover enzymes that can contribute to faster and more efficient industrial processes.  -At the algorithm level, the goal of ENZYMARES is to integrate multi-omics analysis with AI methods in developing a multi-parameter algorithm surpassing the state-of-the-art that predicts enzyme functionality and activity using amino acid data with specific a priori defined characteristics in terms of process performance.  -At the process level, the goal of ENZYMARES is to optimize process work-flows for (i) screening for enzyme activity, (ii) optimization of reaction conditions and (iii) performance in application settings and scalability. The combination of these three crucial stages in the full chain of events will lead to a unique proof-of-concept  that integrates each step of the  enzyme discovery pathway into a comprehensive enzyme discovery toolbox.