Project description
Maximising the biocatalytic rate of a promising lipase
Oily wastewater from industrial and human activities poses an important threat to groundwater and drinking water quality. Biocatalysts, such as Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL), can remove lipids effectively but have limited solubility and reusability, increasing costs and limiting widespread application. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the lipaseTEM project will immobilise TLL on solid supports and investigate the interaction of the immobilised enzyme with the support nanostructure and the lipid substrate with in situ kinetic studies. Using various immobilisation methods and support nanostructures, the team will attempt to find the system characteristics that maximise the biocatalytic reaction rate.
Objective
Water contamination caused by human and industrial activities is a significant global concern. One of the most prominent pollutants is oily wastewater, severely impacting groundwater and drinking water quality. Biocatalysts, such as Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL), are used in many household detergents to remove lipids effectively. However, their limited solubility and reusability can increase running costs and hinder large-scale applications. To address this issue, we plan to immobilize TLL on solid supports and determine the appropriate surface density of enzymes, conformational changes during immobilization, and the effect of support on its kinetic properties. Our goal is to develop innovative methods for nanoscale imaging of enzymes using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to gain insights into the structural aspects of immobilization. By investigating the interaction of the immobilized enzyme with the support nanostructure and the lipid substrate, we expect to identify the attributes that maximize the biocatalytic reaction rate. We will explore different immobilization methods on various nanostructures and investigate how TLL interacts with the immobilization matrices at the nanoscale level. Additionally, we will apply water vapor atmosphere in the TEM to explore in situ the dynamic switching between the active and idle state of the single enzyme molecules in real-time by their conformational changes. We are aiming to obtain groundbreaking results and a paradigm shift, based on the in situ kinetic studies of lipase-catalyzed chemical reactions which can become a gateway into the quantum mechanical world of molecular science.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculeslipids
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisbiocatalysis
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark