Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing global health challenges, creating an urgent need for new strategies to develop improved antibiotics and sustainable manufacturing processes. At the same time, rare sugars are attracting increasing interest because of their potential applications in pharmaceuticals, functional foods and biotechnology. However, both the modification of antibiotics, namely aminoglycosides and the production of rare sugars remain challenging using conventional chemical synthesis, which often requires multiple reaction steps, protecting groups and environmentally demanding processes.
The COxEnzymes-AGs project addressed these challenges by developing sustainable enzyme-based approaches for selectively modifying carbohydrate-containing molecules. The project focused on engineering carbohydrate-oxidising enzymes capable of performing highly selective oxidation reactions under mild conditions using molecular oxygen, providing greener alternatives to conventional chemical methods.
The project pursued two complementary objectives. The first was to develop improved enzymes for the efficient production of rare sugars and their derivatives through chemoenzymatic synthesis. The second was to investigate the potential of engineered enzymes to selectively modify aminoglycoside antibiotics, laying the foundation for the future development of novel antibiotic derivatives.
To achieve these goals, the project combined protein engineering, directed evolution, biocatalysis, carbohydrate chemistry and advanced analytical techniques. The developed enzyme variants were evaluated for their catalytic properties and integrated into sustainable synthetic workflows.
The project contributes to the European Green Deal and Horizon Europe objectives by promoting environmentally friendly chemical manufacturing based on renewable resources and biocatalysis. Its results expand the available toolbox of engineered enzymes and support future innovation in biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and sustainable industrial processes. In addition, the fellowship strengthened international collaboration, knowledge transfer and interdisciplinary training in enzyme engineering and carbohydrate chemistry.
