PIEZOZYMES

Start date: 1 June 2023

End date: 31 May 2027

Financing: European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost: 1.500.000,00 €.

Project summary

• The cost-effective production of biochemicals and derived biofuels in a sustainable manner is a fundamental objective of modern biotechnology. Redox-biosynthetic pathways are fundamental in the manufacture of chemicals to establish a bio-based economy. Sustainable regeneration and recycling of redox cofactors is a prerequisite for the viable industrial exploitation of many of the redox-biosynthetic pathways described. These limits hinder the use of cofactor-dependent biotransformations in large-scale production processes. To overcome these limitations, the main objective of this project, PIEZOZYMES, is to advance to the forefront of technology by pursuing novel biotechnological tools for the efficient regeneration of mechanically fed redox cofactors. This progress will bring several advantages over current cofactor regeneration systems, where the biochemical, electrochemical and photonic sources traditionally employed will be replaced by mechanical sources. The technology resulting from this project will have a valuable societal impact, paving new ways for the cost-effective exploitation of cofactor-dependent enzymes as economically suitable biocatalysts in a large number of industrial catalytic biotransformations.

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