Enzymes are used in many industrial sectors, including the chemical, food, (water) feed, agricultural, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. They help to routinely develop more efficient, sustainable and economically more competitive industrial manufacturing processes. However, the supply is limited and there is an unmet need for new, improved and/or more versatile enzymes.
Many potential enzymes remain largely unexplored because a large-scale biological discovery project is time consuming and expensive. Recent advances in molecular technology allow high-throughput screening of potential enzymes based on genomic data. However, translating this data into enzyme annotation and function specificity and ultimately reaction conditions and production requires a high level of multidisciplinary expertise. That is why the Flemish spearhead cluster Catilisti wants to establish a multidisciplinary consortium with sufficient academic and industrial expertise to translate this knowledge pipeline into a feasible algorithm and an AI toolbox that can stimulate the discovery of new enzymes and, more importantly, lead to a shorter time-to-market for industries.
Knowledge partners in this four-year project called Enzymares are UGent, KU Leuven, VIB, VITO, and the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant. The project is supported by De Blauwe Cluster and Flanders’ FOOD. Industrial partners can register via Catalisti. You can respond until November 20, 2020.
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