Chemical Communication (2022): “Novel triple mutant of an extremophilic glycosyl hydrolase enables the rapid synthesis of thioglycosides”
In order to expand the toolbox of enzymes available for thioglycoside synthesis, we describe here the first example of an extremophilic glycosyl hydrolase from Halothermothrix orenii (HorGH1) engineered towards thioglycosynthase activity with a novel combination of mutations. Using the triple mutant, HorGH1 M299R/E166A/E354G, a range of thioglycosides from glycosyl fluoride donors and aromatic thiols could be synthesised with […]
Green Chemistry (2022): “Combined chemoenzymatic strategy for sustainable continuous synthesis of the natural product hordenine”
First paper for Stefania! To improve sustainability, safety and cost-efficiency of synthetic methodologies, biocatalysis can be a helpful ally. In this work, a novel chemoenzymatic stategy ensures the rapid synthesis of hordenine, a valuable phenolic phytochemical under mild working conditions. In a two-step cascade, the immobilized tyrosine decarboxylase from Lactobacillus brevis (LbTDC) is here coupled with the […]
Nature Communication (2022): “Spheroplasts preparation boosts the catalytic 
Squalene-hopene cyclases are a highly valuable and attractive class of membrane-bound enzymes as sustainable biotechnological tools to produce aromas and bioactive compounds at industrial scale. However, their application as whole-cell biocatalysts suffer from the outer cell membrane acting as a diffusion barrier for the highly hydrophobic substrate/product, while the use of purified enzymes leads to […]
MetRaZyme Doctoral Network is live!
The EU Doctoral Network coordinated by Prof. Nico Bruns in Darmstad has kicked off! Metal-containing radical enzymes creates a PhD school across leading European universities that trains the next generation of scientists capable of tackling the design, development and implementation of novel enzymatic reactions in a holistic approach. It brings together computational bioscientists, bioinorganic and […]
Christmas dinner 2022
Another great year comes to a close for the group, I am so grateful to be surrounded by an excellent team of young scientists that truly make my job very very easy. I’m looking forward to another year together! Related Posts
J Flow Chem (2020): “Aromas flow: eco-friendly, continuous, and scalable preparation of flavour esters”
In this manuscript, the core idea of Martina’s Marie Curie project has been captured in its essence with the design of a highly sustainable strategy for the preparation of natural flavour esters, using exclusively reagents found in nature. The precious collaboration with Prof. Molinari and Prof. Tamborini (co-corresponding author) has been key for the optimisation […]
Frontiers Bioeng. Biotechnol. (2019): “Enhancing PLP-binding capacity of class-III ω-transaminases by single residue substitution”
The importance of PLP stability in transaminases prompted us to investigate less obvious residues which may be involved in anchoring the PLP. This work was a great collaboration with Dr. Lopez-Gallego (who just recently moved back to San Sebastian) and Dr.Dreveny in Nottingham. Very well done to David who carried out this work and got the good news of it being accepted on the […]
ChemBioChem (2019): “Transaminase-catalyzed continous synthesis of biogenic aldehydes”
Well done to Martina for securing another paper in the field of flow biocatalysis. Here we have looked at the possibility of preparing biogenic aldehydes from biological amines. Exploiting previous work we have co-immobilised the PLP cofactor generating a fully self sufficient reactor. Read the full paper here
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2019): “Efficient enzymatic preparation of flavor esters in water”
Lovely collaboration once again with Prof. Francesco Molinari in Milan, well done to everyone involved! Check out the paper at this link
Chemical Science (2019): “Widely applicable background depletion step enables transaminase evolution through solid-phase screening”
This paper describes what appears to be an almost trivial solution to a very well known issue in microbial screening for transaminase activity. Quenching the background with a simple neutralization of the basal pyruvate presence was a stroke of genius! Well done to everyone who contributed! And by the way, we have included also the […]