Engineering the Next Wave of Biocatalysts

Biocatalysis uses enzymes to speed up chemical reactions in order to produce valuable products. Over the last century, the field has evolved from early use in breaking down oils in laundry detergents to an advanced discipline in which enzymes are specially engineered to produce pharmaceuticals and make industrial processes more eco-friendly.

Now, significant progress in developing new tools, both experimental and computational, has ushered in the next era of biocatalytic applications, according to a recent review published in Science.

“Over the past five or ten years, massive developments have enabled us to make a huge jump in biocatalysis,” says corresponding author Uwe T. Bornscheuer of the Univ. of Greifswald. “We now can solve problems that were once impossible.”

Historically, enzymes have been developed through conventional methods such as screening natural diversity from environmental samples or existing enzyme libraries, and relying on trial-and-error approaches to discover the desired enzymatic activities. In the 2000s, a Nobel-Prize-winning innovation called directed evolution revolutionized enzyme development. Starting with a base enzyme, researchers could introduce random mutations and select for improved variants, allowing for the development of enzymes with enhanced or entirely new functions.

The next evolution in enzyme engineering is happening now, according to Bornscheuer. In the past 10 years, scientists have gone beyond modifying or extending existing enzymatic activities; now,...