Writing better enzymes
The lab is engaged in structure-based, combinatorial engineering approaches to improve the activities of lactonases, with applications from anti-virulence plasters and anti-biofouling paints to insecticide decontamination.
Biological macromolecules are fantastic objects with nearly unlimited activities and potential. Their use in biotechnology has already changed several segments of industry, including detergents, paper and food, and is expected to revolutionize the medical industry.
Lactonases are promiscuous enzymes that can fortuitously catalyze the hydrolysis of organophosphorus insecticides.
Engineering stable, active and specific lactonases has the potential to control microbes in a wide variety of environments. Such engineered lactonases underlie the solutions the group is developing to interfere with bacterial communication, such as anti-virulence plasters and anti-biofouling paints.
Potential applications
- Decontamination
- Wound dressings
- Antifouling paint
Try the minigame! You run a protein engineering experiment and screen variants over five rounds. In each round, pick the best variant and keep it for the next. See how mutations interact in different protein backgrounds, and make the best enzyme you can.
- Parent enzyme
- ×1.0
- Goal
- ×60
- Screens left
- 8
- Best on this plate
- none yet
How to play
- Additive effects multiply as expected
- Positive epistasis better than expected
- Negative epistasis less gain than expected, or even a loss
A simulated landscape, for illustration. As in the lab, each round screens a fresh plate of variants built on the best one so far.
Best enzymes on this device
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