Project description
Designing enzymes for sustainable industries
Enzymes are usually proteins that act as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions in living organisms. They play a critical role in many cellular processes, including DNA replication and protein synthesis, and have also been exploited in industry owing to their beneficial characteristics. However, current methods for designing enzymes for industrially relevant targets are slow and expensive. The goal of the ERC-funded FASTEN project is to develop a new computational approach to designing efficient enzymes quickly and accurately for industrial applications. Researchers will employ tools based on machine learning, correlation and coevolution, as well as computational geometry to predict mutations that enhance enzyme activity. Insight into the catalytic efficiency of these new enzymes will help improve the design protocol and contribute to sustainable industrial processes.
Objective
Life could not be sustained without the presence of enzymes, which are responsible for accelerating the chemical reactions in a biologically compatible timescale. Enzymes present other advantageous features such as high specificity and selectivity, plus they operate under very mild biological conditions. Inspired by these extraordinary characteristics, many scientists wondered about the possibility of designing new enzymes for industrially-relevant targets. Unfortunately, none of the current enzyme design strategies is able to rapidly design tailor-made enzymes at a reduced cost. This is limiting the general routine application of enzyme catalysis in industry, and thus the chemical manufacturing competitiveness. The goal of this project is to develop a fast yet accurate computational enzyme design approach for allowing the routine design of highly efficient enzymes. FASTEN combines computational chemistry, deep learning, graph theory, and computational geometry for controlling the complexity of enzyme catalysis in a new computational protocol that will capture the chemical steps and conformational changes that take place along the catalytic itinerary. Active site and distal activity-enhancing mutations are predicted based on correlation and co-evolutionary-based guidelines, and the catalytic potential of the new designs is estimated by means of geometry-based oracles. This new computational approach will be validated with the design of enzymes presenting complex conformational dynamics and multi-step mechanisms. The experimental evaluation of many of the designs will finally reveal the potential of this new approach for the fast routinely design of industrially-relevant enzymes. FASTEN has the potential of making the routine design of enzymes possible, thus improving our current lives and leading to a more sustainable world for our generations.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics mutation
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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-2022-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.
17004 Girona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.