Project description
Yeast biocatalysis for chemical synthesis
Valuable chemicals serve as building blocks in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry for the manufacturing of various products. L amino acids play a significant role in high-value chiral molecule synthesis due to their versatile chemical structure. However, technical challenges limit the utilisation of L amino acids in chemical synthesis, necessitating alternative technologies. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the YcascadE project proposes to develop a modular biocatalysis approach in vivo using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The idea is to harness the specificity of enzymes in a sustainable and high-yield approach to produce intermediates for the chemical industry.
Objective
The development of green and robust technologies for the conversion of renewable feedstock into high-value chemicals is of great interest and challenging for the chemical industry. Although L-α-amino acids can be sustainably produced from renewable feedstock by fermentation, these amino acids are rarely being used as starting material for the chemical synthesis of high-value chiral molecules due to the lack of efficient and highly selective biocatalytic methodologies . In this project, I will design and develop a modular approach for biocatalysis in vivo enabling the conversion of natural amino acids into enantiopure alpha-chiral amines and amino-alcohols, which are important intermediates or final products for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries. Saccharomyces cerevisiae will be selected as the host organism for the biocatalytic pathway because its genome is well-known, is suitable for large scale operation, and will allow to obtain higher productivity than using bacterial strains. A library of integrative plasmids expressing the enzymes will be constructed and transformed to S. cerevisiae to obtain a yeast cell factory. The system will be optimized both on the genetic level and on the bioprocess level. The working plan will include an interdisciplinary approach involving molecular biology techniques together with metabolic engineering as well as optimization of conditions for biotransformation. Additionally, analytical chemistry methodologies for determination of yield, purity and enantiomeric excess of the products and intermediates will be required. While the state-of-the-art proves the feasibility of the project, by using our proposed approach with resting S. cerevisiae cells, we expect to make a major break-through in the field in terms of increase productivity (e.g. space-yield; space-time-yield; total yields from substrate) and, moreover, a wider applicability of the resulting platform due to the modularity approach.
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.
This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service
You need to log in or register to use this function
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.
-
HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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.