Chairs
Professor Adrian Mulholland, University of Bristol, UK
Professor Adrian Mulholland, University of Bristol, UK
Adrian Mulholland’s research focuses on the investigation of mechanisms of biological catalysis, and biomolecular structure and function more generally, by computational modelling and simulation. His work has ranged from studies of drug resistance, including antimicrobial resistance, to biosynthesis, synthetic biology, enzyme engineering and thermoadaptation, to investigations of quantum tunnelling and protein dynamics in enzyme catalysis. A central theme in his research is the development and application of combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) techniques, in particular for the investigation of enzyme-catalysed reaction mechanisms. He has a strong interest in the application of high performance computing (HPC), particularly for biomolecular simulations. Following work at ICI Pharmaceuticals, he obtained his D. Phil. with Prof. Graham Richards at Oxford, and then worked as a Wellcome Trust Fellow with Prof. Martin Karplus at Harvard. He is Head of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at Bristol. He is Chair of CCP-BioSim (the UK Collaborative Computational Project for Biomolecular Simulation, ccpbiosim.ac.uk) and HECBioSim (the UK High End Computing Consortium for Biomolecular Simulation, hecbiosim.ac.uk), and of the UK CCP Steering Panel (see ccp.ac.uk).
09:00-09:30
Enzyme catalysed reactions for high-value applications
Professor Nicholas Turner, University of Manchester, UK
Abstract
This lecture will describe recent work from our laboratory aimed at developing new biocatalysts for enantioselective organic synthesis, with emphasis on the design of in vitro and in vivo cascade processes for generating chiral pharmaceutical building blocks. By applying the principles of ‘biocatalytic retrosynthesis’ we have shown that it is increasingly possible to design new synthetic routes to target molecules in which biocatalysts are used in the key bond forming steps.
The integration of several biocatalytic transformations into multi-enzyme cascade systems, both in vitro and in vivo, will be addressed in the lecture. In this context monoamine oxidase (MAO-N) has been used in combination with other biocatalysts and chemocatalysts in order to complete a cascade of enzymatic reactions. Other engineered biocatalysts that can be used in the context of cascade reactions include w-transaminases, ammonia lyases, amine dehydrogenases, imine reductases, and artificial transfer hydrogenases. We shall also present recent work regarding the discovery of a new biocatalyst for enantioselective reductive amination and show how these enzymes can be used to carry out redox neutral amination of alcohols via ‘hydrogen borrowing’.
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Professor Nicholas Turner, University of Manchester, UK
Professor Nicholas Turner, University of Manchester, UK
Nick Turner obtained his DPhil in 1985 with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin and from 1985-1987 was a Royal Society Junior Research Fellow, spending time at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides. He was appointed lecturer in 1987 at Exeter University and moved to Edinburgh in 1995, initially as a Reader and subsequently Professor in 1998. In October 2004 he joined Manchester University as Professor of Chemical Biology where his research group is located in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology Biocentre (MIB: www.mib.ac.uk). He is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Biocatalysis (CoEBio3) (www.coebio3.org) and also a co-founder and Scientific Director of Ingenza (www.ingenza.com), a spin-out biocatalysis company based in Edinburgh and more recently Discovery Biocatalysts. He is a member of the Editorial Board of ChemCatChem and Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. His research interests are in the area of biocatalysis with particular emphasis on the discovery and development of novel enzyme catalysed reactions for applications in organic synthesis. His group are also interested in the application of directed evolution technologies for the development of biocatalysts with tailored functions.
09:45-10:15
Biocatalytic recycling of plastic
Professor Wolfgang Zimmermann, Leipzig University, Germany
Abstract
The global production of plastics made from non-renewable fossil feedstocks has grown more than 20-fold since 1964. While more than eight billion metric tons of plastics have been produced until today, only a small fraction is currently collected for recycling and large amounts of plastic waste are ending up in landfills or in the oceans. Pollution caused by accumulating plastic waste in the environment has therefore become world-wide a very serious problem.
Synthetic polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) have widespread use in packaging materials, beverage bottles, foams, coatings, and fibers. Recently it has been shown that amorphous PET materials can be completely hydrolyzed by microbial enzymes at mild reaction conditions in aqueous media. Due to the restricted mobility of the polymer chains at ambient temperatures, an efficient biocatalytic degradation has to be performed close to the glass transition temperature of PET of about 70°C. Thermostable enzymes like those produced by actinomycete bacteria have therefore emerged as the most promising catalysts for the hydrolysis of PET to its monomeric building blocks. In a circular economy, the resulting monomers can be recovered and reused to manufacture novel PET again or other products without depleting fossil feedstocks. The enzymatic degradation of post-consumer plastic waste thereby represents an innovative, environmentally benign, and sustainable alternative to conventional chemical recycling processes. By the construction of powerful biocatalysts employing protein engineering techniques and an optimization of the bioprocess parameters, a biocatalytic recycling of PET can be further developed towards industrial applications.
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Professor Wolfgang Zimmermann, Leipzig University, Germany
Professor Wolfgang Zimmermann, Leipzig University, Germany
Born 1953 in Heidelberg, Germany. Studied biochemistry, microbiology, and chemistry at the Medizinisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Hochschule Ulm and at the University of Heidelberg, receiving his Diplom degree in 1981 and doctorate in 1984 from the Universität Heidelberg. From 1985 to 1987 post-doctoral fellow in biochemistry at the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology, UK. From 1988 to 1993 assistant professor and head of the Enzyme Technology Section at the Department of Biotechnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. From 1993 to 1999 Professor in Biotechnology at Aalborg University, Denmark and from 1999 to 2004 Professor and Chair in Bioprocess Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. Since 2005 Professor and Chair in Microbiology and Bioprocess Technology, Universität Leipzig, Germany.
11:00-11:30
Biocatalysis and biomass conversion: enabling a circular economy
Professor Roger Sheldon, Delft University of Technology
Abstract
Two of the grand societal and technological challenges of the twenty first century are the 'greening' of chemicals manufacture and the ongoing transition to a bio-based economy: that is a sustainable, carbon-neutral economy based on renewable biomass as the raw material. These challenges are motivated by the need to eliminate environmental degradation and mitigate climate change. Waste minimisation and waste valorisation in a circular economy constitute a point of overlap of these grand challenges. In a bio-based economy, ideally waste biomass, particularly agricultural and forestry residues and food supply chain waste, are converted to liquid fuels, commodity chemicals, and biopolymers by employing clean, catalytic processes.
Biocatalysis has the right credentials to achieve this goal. Enzymes are biocompatible (sometimes even edible), biodegradable and essentially non-hazardous. Additionally, they are derived from inexpensive renewable resources which are readily available and not subject to the large price fluctuations which undermine the long term commercial viability of catalysts derived from scarce precious metals. Moreover, thanks to spectacular advances in molecular biology the landscape of biocatalysis has dramatically changed in the last two decades. Developments in (meta)genomics in combination with 'big data' analysis have revolutionised new enzyme discovery and developments in protein engineering by directed evolution have enabled dramatic improvements in their performance. These developments have their confluence in the bio-based circular economy.
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Professor Roger Sheldon, Delft University of Technology
Professor Roger Sheldon, Delft University of Technology
Roger Sheldon is a recognised authority on Green Chemistry and Catalysis and is widely known for developing the concept of E factors for assessing the environmental footprint of chemical processes. He is Professor Emeritus of Biocatalysis and Organic Chemistry of Delft University of Technology and Chief Executive Officer of CLEA Technologies. He is the author of several books on catalysis as well as more than 450 professional papers and 50 granted patents. His research interests are in the general area of green chemistry, (bio)catalysis and enzyme immobilisation.
He has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Leicester (UK) and prior to joining Delft University, in 1991, he had more than 20 years industrial experience, as Vice President for Research and Development at DSM / Andeno from 1980 to 1990 and with Shell Research Amsterdam from 1969 to 1980.
11:45-12:15
Cleaner NADH recycling for biocatalytic chemical synthesis
Professor Kylie Vincent, University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
Enzymes are powerful catalysts for selective oxidation and reduction reactions, but one of the barriers to the scale-up of biocatalysis for bulk chemical transformations is the reliance of many of these enzymes on expensive nicotinamide cofactors, NADH or NADPH. The cost and complexity of these cofactors mean that they must be continuously recycled during chemical transformations. Recycling of the reduced cofactors is typically achieved using glucose as a sacrificial oxidant (hydride donor), generating substantial carbon-based waste. This talk will explore alternative, cleaner possibilities for recycling the reduced cofactors for reductive chemical synthesis, using hydrogen gas or electrochemical processes as the reductant for NADH or NADPH. Further, we show that immobilisation of the cofactor recycling system, together with the enzyme of interest, on a solid support offers advantages for scale-up and re-use of biocatalysts in batch reactors, and possibilities for implementing biocatalysis in continuous flow reactors. Developments in these areas will be critical in enabling biocatalysis to move beyond the small-volume, fine chemicals sector so that enzymes can play a significant role in circular transformations of commodity chemicals in a sustainable future economy
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Professor Kylie Vincent, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Kylie Vincent, University of Oxford, UK
Kylie Vincent is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, and Fellow of Jesus College Oxford at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include mechanistic studies of small-molecule activation in metalloenzymes, and new ways of applying biocatalysis in chemical synthesis. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia (BA/ BSc (Hons), PhD) and has worked in Oxford since 2002 when she joined the group of Fraser Armstrong as a postdoctoral researcher and an RJP Williams Junior Research Fellowship at Wadham College. In 2007 she took up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and was appointed as Associate Professor in 2013 and Professor in 2017. Her team won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technologies competition in 2013 for development of HydRegen, a platform technology for hydrogen-driven biocatalysis, and she won the Clara Immerwahr Award for Excellence in Catalysis Research in 2012 and was named Woman of the Future in Science and Technology in 2011.