Enzyme Engineering

CD Biosynsis provides professional enzyme engineering services to facilitate the cutting-edge research of synthetic biology researchers around the world.

Introduction to Enzyme Engineering

All life on earth depends on chemical transformations that allow cells to function and perform basic tasks from digesting food to making DNA. These are powered by naturally-occurring enzymes that act as nature’s catalysts, initiating the process and tremendously accelerating the rates of various biochemical reactions, often with exquisite specificity. Enzymes have become the center of attraction in multiple industries, such as pharmaceutical, fine chemical, agrochemical, and materials. Enzyme engineering is a powerful tool for fine-tuning enzymes to improve their activity or stability for other purposes.

Chemical modification is an attractive tool for enzyme engineering, as it can be used to improve the properties of conventional enzymes. Recombinant DNA technologies have opened a new phase of enzymology, as producing pure natural enzymes on a large scale and designing modified enzymes with biotechnological applications were made possible. With the rapid increase in industrial applications of biocatalysts, new techniques for enzyme engineering are being actively developed. Computational tools have provided new approaches to modify enzymes faster and more specifically in a shorter period of time. Synthetic biology tools are also becoming more widely used. In the future, artificial enzymes will introduce the next wave in biotechnology.

Figure 1. A snapshot of synthetic biology tools used for modification of microbial enzymes. (Shukla P, 2019)

Service Offering

CD Biosynsis provides state-of-the-art strategies for enzyme engineering. Our services include but not limited to the following:

Protein Engineering

CD Biosynsis provides a comprehensive portfolio of protein engineering related services, from protein expression to directed evolution. Different strategies of protein engineering can be used for enzyme engineering to facilitate the development of synthetic biology.

Enzyme Scaffold Engineering

Spatially arranging pathway enzymes can address the problems that pathway intermediates can be toxic to host cells, consumed by endogenous cellular activities, or reduced through secretion. Scaffold proteins can spatially organize specific proteins in the cell to coordinate certain cellular activities. CD Biosynsis provides enzyme scaffold engineering services for the control of metabolic flux or the colocalization of synthetic pathway enzymes into complexes.

Unnatural Amino Acid-Based Enzyme Engineering

The traditional approach of replacing one amino acid with the other 19 natural amino acids to alter the functional properties of enzymes has imposed limitations on enzyme engineering. The incorporation of unnatural amino acids can complement and remove these limitations. CD Biosynsis provides unnatural amino acid-based enzyme engineering services for industry, pharmaceutical, and other research applications.

Engineering New Catalytic Activities in Enzymes

New catalytic activities of existing enzymes can be rapidly released by challenging and/or designing them to work with non-natural reagents in new environments. CD Biosynsis offers specialized services by combining enzyme engineering with synthetic chemistry for engineering new catalytic activities in enzymes.

Artificial Enzyme Construction

Artificial enzymes, which are designed entirely from scratch to act as catalysts in cells, can be constructed by selecting suitable catalytic scaffolds in combination with protein engineering strategies. CD Biosynsis has a scientific team capable of constructing artificial enzymes and is equipped with advanced technology platforms, such as computer-aided design and synthetic chemistry.

CD Biosynsis is fully committed to providing our customers with tailored one-stop solutions to help them overcome the challenges in synthetic biology. Our scientists have the ability to bring diverse creative ideas to fruition. If you are interested in our services, please contact us for more details.

References

1. Shukla P. Synthetic Biology Perspectives of Microbial Enzymes and Their Innovative Applications. Indian journal of microbiology, 2019: 1-9.
2. Badenhorst C P S & Bornscheuer U T. Getting momentum: from biocatalysis to advanced synthetic biology. Trends in biochemical sciences, 2018, 43(3): 180-198.

Please note that all services are for research use only. Not intended for any clinical use.