BIOCATalysis

Research team BIOCAT - BIOCATalysis

Leader : Christine Hélaine, Associated Professor
 

Research topics

Biocatalysis in organic synthesis for chiral molecules preparation of biological interest. Enzymes are natural biocatalysts highly selectives and efficient. The chemo- regio- and stereoselectivity of biocatalysed reactions leads to environmental friendly process developments. They answer to several green chemistry principles : shortened syntheses, reduced organic solvents volumes, reduced energetic costs and enzymes are naturally biodegradables. Our aim integrates specificity studies and utilisation of synthetic potential of the enzymes produced from recombinant strains. Improvement and modulation of the enzymatic tools as well as exploration of new catalytic activities (mutagenesis or bank genome screening) are developped in collaboration with Genoscope (Evry, France) and several european laboratories.

Our work is focused on two main themes:

• Enzymatic Transamination for non natural amino acid preparation. Aminotransferases (AT) in synthesis offer today a large number of possibilities to access to a broad diversity of chiral amines including alpha or beta aminoacids starting from carbonyl derivatives.
• C-C bond formation for chiral polyols preparation. Aldolases and transketolases are key enzymes of the glucidic metabolism. They stereoselectively catalyse a C-C bond formation, generally an addition reaction between a carbonyl donor substrate and an aldehyde acceptor substrate. These enzymes are useful tools for structurally diversified chiral polyols preparation. Our projects in this field concern aldolase and transketolase applications for the synthesis of chiral polyols, design and search of new catalytic activities as well as enzyme immobilization.

Competences

Organic and analytical synthesis, micro-organisms culture, enzyme production, enzyme kinetics, inhibition studies, automatised or non-automatised enzymatic screening tests, analytical chemistry.
 

Programs and grants

2013- 2018 : ANR Blanc Franco-allemand, Thermo TK Ingénierie d’une transcétolase thermostable par évolution dirigée : nouvelle stréosélectivité, nouvelle spécificité de substrat, nouveau champ d’application Porteur : L. Hecquet

2017-2019 : FRI Laboratoire (Région/BPI) « Des enzymes pour la chimie verte : production de polyols par voie biocatalytique » Porteur : L. Hecquet

2018-2021 : Pack Ambition Recherche (Région AURA), VALCOUPENZ, « Valorisation d’huiles végétales par coupure enzymatique » Partenaire : L. Hecquet

2018-2021 : H2020 - European Research Area (ERA), Programme ERA CoBioTech, TRALAMINOL. Partenaire : L. Hecquet
 

Academic and industrial partnerships

National academies