The growing world population, which is expected to reach ~11 billion by 2100, will increase the demand for chemicals, such as aging-related drugs, by a greater number of consumers. Therefore, the need for high quality intermediates produced by environmentally friendly technologies with low carbon dioxide emissions will be manifold. To this end, the implementation of novel biocatalysts and methods that use fewer reagents than established methods, increase the reusability of biocatalysts and reduce waste generation will contribute to cleaner, safer and less energy-intensive production routes, thereby contributing in the long term to reduced carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-based feedstocks and less waste-generating industries. This is where BiodeCCodiNNg comes in: the results of the research are expected to provide novel methodologies for the creation of tailor-made biocatalysts for the production of a wide range of CC- and NN-bonded products, leading to a variety of industrially relevant compounds that cannot be realized with the currently known enzyme diversity. More than 80% of chemical products are produced by catalytic reactions. Thus, the benefits of identifying novel biocatalysts for C-C and N-N bond formation that are not yet accessible through enzyme catalysis are manifold. The holistic approach to the development of novel biocatalysts for the targeted C-C and N-N bond formation reactions requires the combination of expertise in synthetic biology, biocatalysis, enzyme and process engineering, structural and computational biology, chemistry, analytics, and process design.
An integral part of BiodeCCodiNNg is therefore the intensive interaction with the private sector to facilitate cross-sector discussions and the exchange of ideas through secondments to the various industrial partners. The first phase of BiodeCCodiNNg has already demonstrated the usefulness of native and engineered CC- and NNzymes for the targeted reactions to produce valuable drug building blocks, along with important optimization steps to improve the enzymatic reactions. In the second phase, we expect the interdisciplinary collaboration to increase our understanding of the underlying structural and mechanistic features that determine how efficiently the novel CC- and NNzymes perform the desired reactions, and how they can be engineered to further advance the industrial implementation of the biocatalytic toolbox enzymes developed in BiodeCCodiNNg. Several publications are currently in preparation and more scientific results will be obtained in the coming period of BiodeCCodiNNg.
