Ingenza
Led by Ingenza Ltd , PML Applications Ltd
with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, has delivered on the TSB - and
BBSRC - sponsored project to identify novel biocatalysts derived
from marine sources for the production of pure chemicals for the
fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Ingenza Ltd provided the
relevant assays to screen for the desired enzyme activity.
Candidate strains identified by whole cell screening were tested
under different growth conditions to investigate optimisation of
protein activity and detailed substrate profiling
performed.
Genomics and database
mining was also used to identify novel enzymes from microalgae and
one example was cloned and expressed.
A number of
bacterial genes were identified and strain specific libraries were
constructed and screened. Additionally, genome sequencing was
also performed on one strain with good enzyme activity and the
target gene identified by database analysis. The gene was
cloned and over-expressed. The target enzyme was successfully
overproduced and characterised. Clones were made available to
the company for further evaluation.
The project was monitored on
a quarterly basis with both written reports and face-to-face
meetings.
