Proteus Develops A New Highly Thermostable Biocatalyst For Processing Low-Solubility Chemicals

Within the frame of its collaboration with Degussa, Proteus has discovered and developed a highly thermostable esterase biocatalyst from a Pyrococcus sp., thus opening novel perspectives in applications involving poorly soluble substrates or products such as for synthesis of specialty intermediates for cosmetics. An efficient, simple, and reliable production process using E. coli was developed. The process is robust and further upscaling to industrial scale was achieved. This together with the high esterase concentration and product recovery yield obtained, makes the Pyrococcus esterase economically competitive for the industrial production of fine chemicals. Detailed results are being published by Degussa and Proteus scientists in Engineering in Life Sciences, a peer-reviewed scientific journal(1).

Proteus is a leading biotechnology company in the field of discovery, engineering and process development of novel proteins and synthesis routes for pharmaceutical, cosmetics, fine chemicals, agrochemical and other industrial applications. The company's activities are supported by specialist know-how and a unique portfolio of proprietary elements including Phenomics(TM), CLIPS-O(TM) and L-Shuffling(TM) for functional high throughput expression and directed evolution of proteins and a unique collection of microbial biodiversity from extreme environments. Combined with Proteus' in house recombinant proteins production expertise and capabilities, this unprecedented platform dramatically accelerates time to market. Products and processes discovered and developed by Proteus exhibit novel and/or improved activity, efficiency and stability, thus conferring competitive advantages in large global markets. Proteus collaborates with major players in their respective industries to address these large market opportunities.