Paradisi Research Retreat 2020
This year has started very well, the Nottingham cohort came to Bern for the first Paradisi Research Retreat. It has been a great few days with a lot of scientific discussions and a trip to the Alps for snowshoe walk in one of the most scenic places nearby. We have very ambitious plans for 2020. […]
Food Chemistry (2020): “Performance of the extremophilic enzyme BglA in the hydrolysis of two aroma glucosides in a range of model and real wines and grape juices”
Very well done Lidia on successfully completing this challenging project! A very good results from the time spent in Australia, and for sure finding new ways to improve aromaticity in wines is ideal at the time of this quarantine…Here we have exploited an extremophilic glycosyl hydrolases which is showing exceptional tolerance to high concentrations of […]
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2020): “Engineering novel S-glycosidase activity into extremo-adapted β-glucosidase by rational design”
This paper presents Nourah’s work on how strategic site directed mutagenesis has been successfully applied to shift substrate preference in glycosyl hydrolases. The mutant enzyme is now able to work with thio-glycosides which are found in several plants and have shown both antimicrobial and anticancer activity. In fact the identified positions could be used also […]
Presenting our research (Jan-Mar 2020)
A few great meetings have already taken place this year and we have presented our progress through invited talks and posters. The 2nd Anglo Swiss Conference in Basel was a great way to network for the group and get to know researchers from the other Swiss universities. We presented posters and chatted about our science. AmineBiocat4.0 took place […]
Green Chemistry (2020): “Cell-free biocatalytic synthesis of pipecolic acid: a dual strategy approach and process intensification in flow”
This work was supported by the Wellcome Prime Award Fran received in 2018 through the University of Nottingham. This grant funded Ana for several month as a Post Doc in Nottingham and together with David they worked on a very nice system to produce pipe colic acid (high value molecule) from simple lysine. Liam was a fourth […]
Chemistry: a European Journal (2020): “Carbene-induced rescue of catalytic activity in deactivated Nitrite Reductase mutant”
Finally we have succeeded in getting this final work of Matteo over the line! This is the second one in the series of the carbene role in binding copper in protein clefts. Here we have shown how a catalytically active enzyme NiR can be partially rescued by replacing a coordinating histidine with the carbene exogenous ligand. In fact, this ligands […]
Frontiers Bioeng. Biotechnol. (2020): “An (R)-Selective Transaminase from Thermomyces stellatus: Stabilizing the Tetrameric Form”
Chris expanded our transaminase toolbox by cloning a new (R) selective enzyme which has the advantage of expressing in very high quantities and it’s very stable. Together with out collaborator Louise Gourlay in Milan, we have also successfully crystallised the structure and provided very useful insight into the quaternary structure of such enzyme. The tetrameter could be further stabilised by introducing strategic cysteine residues to enable the formation of intra-subunit […]
During the #Covid19 Quarantine
The research during the quarantine, which at the time of this post is still ongoing in the UK, has suffered quite a set back for what concerns experiments in the lab. The group has used this time to focus on finishing papers for which we had sufficient data accumulated, and drafting others to have them […]
Nature Catalysis (2020): “A strategic Ser/Cys exchange in the catalytic triad unlocks an acyltransferase mediated synthesis of thioesters and tertiary amides”
Martina did it again! Working together with David, they looked at how the acyltransferases we have worked with before could become an even more efficient catalyst. Find the paper here or you can access a read only version here. Related Posts
ChemBioChem (2021): “Release of soybean isoflavones using a β-Glucosidase from Alicyclobacillus herbarius”
Well done to Lidia and Chris and massive thank you to Louise Gourlay (excellent crystallographer at the University of Milan) for this great work on the extraction of isofavones from soy flour with a new glycosyl hydrolase. Abstract: β-Glucosidases are used in the food industry to hydrolyse glycosidic bonds in complex sugars, with enzymes sourced […]