Project description
Water as an electron donor to promote oxidoreductases-catalysed transformations
Redox reactions are a central type of conversion in organic synthesis. They involve a transfer of electrons between a donor (which is reduced) and an acceptor (which is oxidised). Oxidoreductases are enzymes that catalyse this transfer. Their activity is usually promoted by stoichiometric cosubstrates such as glucose and alcohols, sacrificing valuable foods as electron donors. Funded by the European Research Council, the BioAqua project will use water instead in a completely novel approach to biocatalysis; it will activate water with visible light and use advanced catalysts to facilitate water oxidation. The liberated electrons will be used to promote oxidoreductases-catalysed transformations in a cleaner and more efficient reaction scheme.
Objective
The research proposed in BioAqua aims at breaking new ground in the area of catalysis by enabling water-driven biocatalytic redox reactions.
Oxidoreductases are a class of enzymes with a very high potential for preparative organic synthesis, which is why they are increasingly used also on industrial scale. The current state-of-the-art, however, utilises valuable high-energy cosubstrates (such as glucose and alcohols) to promote oxidoreductases. Thereby valuable (and edible) building blocks are wasted as sacrificial electron donors which will have significant ethical (food for chemistry), economic and environmental consequences once redox biocatalysis is applied at scale.
I envision utilizing water as sacrificial electron donor. Hence, a simple and abundant cosubstrate will be used instead of the valuable cosubstrates mentioned above. This will be a completely new approach in (bio)catalysis.
However, activating water for this purpose water is extremely difficult due to its kinetic and thermodynamic inertness. To solve this problem, I propose using visible light as external energy source and advanced chemical catalysts to facilitate water oxidation. The electrons liberated in this process will be made available (for the first time) to promote oxidoreductases-catalysed transformations.
BioAqua represents an entirely new paradigm in catalysis as I will bridge the gap between photocatalysis and biocatalysis enabling cleaner and more efficient reaction schemes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis photocatalysis
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry organic reactions
- natural sciences physical sciences thermodynamics
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis biocatalysis
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2014-CoG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2628 CN DELFT
Netherlands
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