Research

Areas of Expertise: 

Green Chemistry, Biocatalysis – involves applying enzymes in green chemistry applications such as material synthesis. Developments in enzyme production and protein engineering have reached a point where biocatalytic pathways to synthesis of a wide variety of chemicals is now possible. Such approaches are increasingly moving into the food and pharmaceutical industries.  

Neoteric Solvents: The advent of novel reaction media such as Deep Eutectic Solvents is only now beginning to be exploited. Unlike conventional solvents, these media allow enzymes to be stabilised and activated for specific applications. Importantly, these solvents are biocompatible and fully biodegradable. The application of these novel solvents is a significant area of expertise in these laboratories and will be a key platform technology for future research. 

Precision Fermentation – Recent advances in the technology of “cell factories” has allowed for the synthesis of key pharmaceuticals at low cost with low energy input. This technology uses engineered microorganisms to produce targeted biomolecules. This approach enables controlled biosynthesis of proteins, enzymes, and other high-value compounds, allowing for scalable alternatives to traditional extraction or chemical synthesis. 

Microbial biogeochemistry – functional role and metabolic potential of microbes from unique and extreme environments using culture-independent techniques. 

Biomolecule Structure Determination - X-ray crystallography/NMR to determine the atomic-level structures of biological molecules to advance drug design, understand biological processes, and engineer new biological products.  

Mass spectrometry-based lipidomics – extraction, fractionation, structural elucidation and quantitation of cellular lipids and secondary metabolites from microbes and complex matrices.  

Bioinformatics & Computational Protein Engineering – application of tools to identify genes, proteins and novel reaction pathways for biocatalytic cascades. The rapid development of bioinformatic technologies is now advanced to the point where the tailoring of “new to nature” biocatalysts and metabolic pathways are possible. Protein Engineering tools will be used to design protein variants with improved activity and stability. This expertise will underpin the proposed centre.