GENETIC CODE EXPANSION for BIOCATALYSIS and ENZYME ENGINEERING
Our Research
The Marie-Skłodowska-Curie European Doctoral Network BiocatCodeExpander is focused on expanding the diversity of functional groups present in proteins to enhance the fields of biocatalysis and biotechnology by using non-canonical amino acids as building blocks. For this, BiocatCodeExpander brings together experts from synthetic biology, biocatalysis, computational biology, structural biology and organic chemistry to ensure the development of methodologies in a collaborative manner and with a strong participation of the private sector.
The consortium is formed by 18 institutions (8 beneficiaries and 10 associated partners)
Our objectives
- Better tools for in vivo and in vitro non-canonical amino acids incorporation
- Novel strategies for coupling chemistry
- Expanded enzyme functions and de novo biocatalyst design
- Train scientists
- Innovation
WORK PACKAGES
BiocatCodeExpander will focus its efforts on three main research objectives:
– Developing better tools enabling methodologies for non-canonical amino acids incorporation to achieve the production efficiency required for successful applications in biocatalysis.
– Diversifying conjugation chemistries and link them to applications for site-specific enzyme immobilization and in vivo probing.
– Applying non-canonical amino acids as building blocks to improve catalytic properties of enzymes or install new-to-nature activities.
OUR AIM
We aim to develop means that have a positive impact on these areas.