Decoding novel reaction chemistries in biocatalysis – Training Europe’s next visionaries for a sustainable future

Enzyme catalysis is an essential technology at the heart of industrial biotechnology, expected to foster the EU economic growth and industry leadership, while effectively addressing social, environmental, and economic needs. It improves the sustainability of chemical processes and gives rise to new reactivities for multi-functionalized product building. Traditional chemical methods for their synthesis are typically realized by costly and environmentally unfriendly processes. Expanding the toolbox of available biocatalysts enabling novel reactions not yet accessible with the existing enzymes is a formidable challenge, but will open exciting new avenues for applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The BIODECCODINNG consortium will address this challenge by decoding novel reaction chemistries from the largely underexploited family of N-N bond forming enzymes, while addressing challenging reactions performed by C-C bond forming enzymes that are currently not accessible.

The main goal of the BIODECCODINNG DN is to train and educate Europe’s next 10 visionaries for a sustainable future on cutting-edge enzyme technology centered around N-N and C-C bond formations, and to tackle technology gaps, practical challenges, as well as to exploit synthetic opportunities with a huge innovation potential. The network is established by world-leading experts from European academic institutions and industrial partners that will together implement the training agenda. This setting provides strong interdisciplinary co-supervision and intersectoral exposure in secondments to the doctoral candidates, and bridges intersectoral and multidisciplinary boundaries across training in leading-edge drug discovery, enzyme catalysis and process development. BIODECCODINNG will therewith prepare the next generation of researchers for the implementation of sustainable enzymatic processes comprising C-C- and N-N bond forming enzymes in the European Biotech sector.