Cooperations

Cell-free synthesis platforms for the production of innovative biocatalysts

Within the framework of the cooperation project "PZ-Syn", new cell-free synthesis platforms for the production of innovative biocatalysts are being developed. The researchers from Fraunhofer IZI-BB, BTU Cottbus Senftenberg and TU Dresden combine their different expertise in the project and are supported by the MWFK with around 5 million euros until 2023.

With the help of the cell-free synthesis platform, the enzyme group of peroxygenases will be made accessible. This group of enzymes, which was discovered in fungi, is so interesting because it exhibits metabolic rates that have also been demonstrated in complex liver enzymes. This means that they carry out comparable reactions that also occur during the metabolization of drugs in the human liver by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system. These processes produce metabolites, i.e. degradation products of these drugs, which can sometimes cause severe side effects.

If one is now able to produce these more than 4000 putative peroxygenases in a cell-free manner, the entire catalytic diversity can be harnessed and used, among other things, for the production of drug metabolites or other specialty chemicals.

The similarity to metabolites produced by liver enzymes is to be tested using the latest generation of liver cell cultures in order to enable the development of a new generation of pharmacological test systems on this basis.