Success Stories

D-amino acid oxidase whole cell biocatalyst

A D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) whole cell biocatalyst was developed for the industrial production of chiral amines and unnatural amino acid which are needed for the production of important drug molecules. First evaluation studies at ACIB´s industrial partner Ingenza proved the new catalyst as the most efficient and robust DAAO in their proprietary process for chiral amine synthesis.

Pichia pastoris protein production platform

Proteins are widely used as medicines, vaccines and enzymes for a series of technical processes. In the majority of the cases they are produced by microorganisms and yeast cells are among the most important cell factories. After the start of the ACIB research programme in January 2010 the researchers in Vienna and Graz bundled their expertise and Pichia technologies and established an efficient production platform for proteins which is presently being further optimized in a cooperation with six company partners

Non-natural cofactors for biocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Alkylation

Cofactors are highly conserved mediators of biological processes and the cofactor-dependence of enzymes is thus highly restricted. For the first time, chemically modified (artificial) cofactors could successfully be applied to biocatalysis.

S-Adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) dependent methyltransferases are used as catalysts for alkylation reactions with S-Adenosyl-L-methionine analogs. The modified cofactors are decorated with alkyl groups other than methyl and used for biocatalytic Friedel-Crafts alkylation. In contrast to the classical chemical reaction the biotransformation is very selective and environmentally compatible.

Enzyme-platform for the asymmetric bioreduction of C=C bonds

A toolbox of flavoproteins for the asymmetric bioreduction of activated alkenes was developed. These enzymes allow the production of flavor- and fragrance compounds, such as the citrus-flavor 'citral' and the olfactory principle of the 'lily-of-the-valley', both of which are widely used in perfumes.