Page 157 - CW E-Magazine (29-10-2024)

News from Abroad

BIOCHEMICAL PRODUCTION
BASF and Austrian researchers develop computer-

assisted model to enhance enzyme efficiency

Numerous factors influence the effi-
ciency of the enzymes used to produce
chemicals. Finding the optimal reaction
conditions therefore requires significant
time and resources. Researchers from
BASF, the Austrian Research Centre
of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and
the University of Graz in Austria have
co-developed a new computer-assisted
model that can improve enzyme per-
formance and enable new biocatalytic
production processes to be scaled up
faster from the lab to industrial manu-
facturing.

Enzymes are biological catalysts
that speed up chemical reactions. The
chemical industry also uses enzymes
as biocatalysts in production processes
to make products such as vitamins, fla- enzyme, where both the reaction tem- perature and solvent concentration for
vourings or ingredients for cosmetics perature and the solvent concentration the best-possible enzyme performance.
and detergents. result in the highest possible activity,” “This sounds simple, but it consider-
noted Dr. Seemayer. ably improves the efficiency of bio-
But enzymes are very sensitive and catalytic processes and gives us a new
stop working properly if, for example, In the past, determining this optimal understanding of enzymatic catalysis,”
the temperature is too high. “They are combination of temperature and sol- said Dr. Seemayer. Owing to the major
then no longer correctly folded and vent concentration was a complex pro- scientific significance, the researchers
lose their three-dimensional structure, cess involving many laboratory experi- were able to publish their findings in
which means no further catalytic reac- ments. Researchers from BASF, acib one of the most renowned scientific
tions can take place in their active cen- and the University of Graz have now journals, Nature Communications.
tre,” explained Dr. Stefan Seemayer, developed a regression model as an
global head of computational protein extension of conventional biochemical With this new method, different
engineering at BASF. However, en- models. A regression model is a statisti- enzymes can be compared more easily
zymes also cannot function optimally cal method used to analyse and predict with each other, and their performance
when temperatures are too low, produc- biochemical reactions based on collected can be optimised. “This considerably
ing lower volumes of the desired pro- scientific data. This model makes it sig- reduces our efforts to find the most
duct. The activity of the biocatalysts nificantly easier to determine the optimal suitable conditions for each new pro-
can also be influenced by substances combination. duction process. We can therefore con-
contained in the reaction medium, such clude our research and development
as solvents. Only a few preliminary lab tests, work in the laboratory more quickly
such as determining the unfolding and thus begin to scale up production
Optimal combination curve of the enzyme, are necessary. The faster. This significantly lowers costs
“In order to get the largest possi- obtained data are entered into the com- and resource consumption, improving
ble amounts of the desired product, we puter model, which then computes the the sustainability of biocatalysis,” Dr.
need to find the optimal point for the optimal combination of reaction tem- Seemayer stressed.

Chemical Weekly October 29, 2024 157

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