Descripción del proyecto
Aplicaciones biotecnológicas innovadoras de los aminoácidos no canónicos
La ampliación del código genético para incorporar aminoácidos no canónicos (NCAA, por sus siglas en inglés) en las proteínas proporciona a la biotecnología herramientas novedosas. Las aplicaciones de los NCAA podrían incluir la investigación de la estructura y la dinámica de las proteínas, la obtención de imágenes y la espectroscopia de proteínas, los quelantes metálicos y los reactivos de la química clic. El objetivo del proyecto BiocatCodeExpander, financiado por las Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, es reunir a expertos de diferentes campos para establecer una red de formación para el desarrollo de las metodologías de NCAA de forma colaborativa. En la red se formará a diez investigadores de doctorado en temas de biocatálisis, biología sintética, química de péptidos y biología computacional. La investigación del proyecto servirá para desarrollar nuevas herramientas y aplicaciones para el diseño de procesos biotecnológicos destinados a la producción respetuosa con el medio ambiente de productos químicos y farmacéuticos.
Objetivo
The expansion of the genetic code for the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (NCAA) in proteins provides biotechnologists with an amazing kit of novel tools. NCAA can be used in multiple applications such as investigation of the structure and dynamics of proteins, as handles for protein imaging and spectroscopy, metal chelators or as click chemistry reagents. Yet, only a few cases exist where NCAA are used in enzyme engineering to explore, improve or install new enzymatic activities. Further development has been restricted by the limited efficiency and flexibility of tools for their incorporation. This is mainly caused by the field developing separately and not being driven by desired target catalytic activities and needs of protein engineers. Therefore, this DN proposal aims to bridge this gap and bring experts from different fields together to ensure the development of the methodologies in a collaborative manner. With a threefold- training structure Learn–Teach–Create, the DN trains 10 PhDs at the boundaries of biocatalysis, synthetic biology, peptide chemistry and computational biology and brings together a team of academic and industrial partners to increase the European research capacity.
The efficiency and flexibility in NCAA incorporation are decisive for successful catalytic application; use of NCAA for selective protein conjugation facilitates application in site-selective immobilization; combination of protein folding analyses in high-throughput-screens with automatization fosters the application of NCAA in directed evolution to engineer reactivity and stability of enzymes; going a step further, NCAA can provide functional groups for designed biocatalysts for new-to-nature reactions. The proposed research affords new tools and applications, and the newly designed catalysts are envisioned to be important biotechnological processes for a greener, more environmentally friendly production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencessynthetic biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsprotein folding
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisbiocatalysis
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryamines
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN - HORIZON TMA MSCA Doctoral NetworksCoordinador
1081 HV Amsterdam
Países Bajos