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Description
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Extremozymes (enzymes that function under extreme conditions, e.g. high temperature, extreme pH or osmotic stress) are of growing interest for industrial applications. Currently the main large scale developments aim at thermostable enzymes for starch and cellulose processing and proteinases. In this project, the application portfolio for extremozymes will be expanded for the cosmetics and food industry. From collection of extremophiles, genomic information regarding extremozymes will be extracted and the respective proteins will be expressed in recombinant organisms. As a reference, bacteria will be used as first expression s ystem, yet the target is an expression in plant cells. By over - expressing highly active and exceptionally stable extremozymes, these new cell lines will become, to our actual knowledge, the first plant cell based platform available for nutraceutic and cosm etic trials. Despite the currently higher cost of plant cell cultivation, this system was chosen for its ability to produce complex proteins that are properly glycosylated, folded and assembled without the risk of toxin contamination known from mammalian or microbial production systems. Two application areas are envisioned: 1. Antioxidant/detoxifying extremozymes for cosmetics industry 2. Sucrase extremozymes mainly for food industry. The project covers the research and technical development from recombinant strain construction via cultivation and purification scale- up to industrial process design and cost estimation. For the aforementioned application areas, the innovation level is very high since there is no such system being developed under economic boundary conditions. Beyond the basic research in molecular genetics and the applied research in process development and optimization, also quantitative mathematical tools will be used to describe the various steps. This will yield new models and insights, whi ch can be transferred to new expression systems for future innovative applications |
