Blog | 09.05.2024

Off-the-shelf Immobilized Biocatalyst Panels – Empowering your green chemistry campaigns.

Immobilized Biocatlyst Panels coming soon to a laboratory near you!

The team at FabricNano are preparing to launch a range of off-the-shelf immobilized enzymes. They will serve the biocatalysis needs of the pharmaceutical, fine chemicals and cosmetics industries. These Immobilized Biocatalysts are a product of our Immobilization EngineeringTM platform and were identified using our Predictive Immobilize Plate technology. 

These Immobilized Biocatalysts will:

  • Accelerate development timelines and cost savings: drop-in off-the-shelf enzymes can save months to years of development time and save hundreds of thousands in development costs.
  • Enable access to biocatalyst supply at scale: no need to worry about the assembly or scale of supply, we ensure QC’d immobilized enzymes arrive for both stirred tank and flow reactor processes.
  • Deliver clear next-steps: where >10X performance is still required, we’re here to help you succeed using FabricNano’s proprietary Immobilization EngineeringTM platform.

Our first set of Immobilized Biocatalyst Panels will include: 

  • Immobilized Ketone Reductases
  • Immobilized Ene Reductases
  • Immobilized Baeyer–Villiger Monooxygenases
  • Immobilized Lipases 

Sounds interesting? Reach out to VP R&D Vishal Sanchania for co-development opportunities via email: vishal@fabricnano.com.

Schedule introductory call: Vishal Sanchania (VP R&D)

The Problem

Enzymes are used ubiquitously across industry, ranging from all aspects of human and animal health and nutrition 1, materials 2, fuels 3, household cleaning 4 and more. The enzyme market is anticipated to double to ~$10Billion by 2031 5. Several reports suggest 5,6 that pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotechnology sectors are major growth areas, along with the incumbent food and beverage industries which make up the majority. 

Applications of enzymes across these growth markets of pharmaceutical, cosmetics and biotechnology include: API intermediate synthesis, synthesis of active naturally occurring ingredients, and flavors and fragrances. Frequently, classical synthesis, raw material manufacturing and biocatalysis teams are racing to compete, co-develop and manufacture these respective chemistries in an economically viable way. Such rivalry and collaboration across business units and teams to maximize business outcomes is encouraging to see. However, biocatalytic routes are typically identified as more likely to be the preferred sustainable greener solution. 

Several sources suggest that we are continuing to witness a surge in biocatalysis endeavors across academia and also in industry to drive forward the green chemistry agenda 7,9,10. However, personal insights from over a hundred discussions and more critical opinions from Novartis et al. suggest that the adoption of enzymatic green chemistry is not where it should be 8. Additional commentary from Prof. Roger Sheldon further bolsters the slow adoption 11 and delivers credence to common themes such as the misconceptions surrounding costs of implementation and a lack of know-how regarding cutting edge technologies. It is also worth mentioning the current lack of funding in both industry and academia considering the promised outcomes expected from biocatalysis groups across the industry. 

Although the challenges the industry faces in adopting sustainable biocatalytic solutions are multi-level, they are surmountable. To overcome them we require technology and tools that can offer immediate value. Without such tools being available off-the-shelf as drop-in solutions, we risk seeing their adoption today – especially when considering the gaps that exist 8,11.

The Right Solution

At FabricNano, we are on a mission to overcome the major challenges in cell-free biocatalysis. We are building technology that is both readily available and capable to win, whilst meeting organizations where they are on their biocatalysis technology adoption curve. 

FabricNano has invented Immobilization EngineeringTM: a platform technology that serves as the perfect enzyme immobilization technology strategy with true scalability built in (Figure 1). The frontend of this platform is spearheaded by our Predictive Immobilization (PI) Plates, which are a core component of the platform. These PI Plates underpin the platform to generate the best Immobilized Biocatalysts Panels for drop-in off-the-shelf applications.

Figure 1. Immobilization EngineeringTM features Predictive Immobilization Plates (left), Interaction Engineering™ (center), and traditional active-site engineering (right).

These off-the-shelf immobilized biocatalyst from FabricNano address the challenges above head-on by:

  1. Saving businesses time and money. Each panel was generated by executing >88 high-dimensional experiments simultaneously, which would otherwise be impractical and taking up to 88 weeks minimum to complete using traditional approaches.
  2. Enabling drop-in use. The immobilized biocatalysts are tested under process conditions and will form part of a process chemistry toolbox for several markets, but primarily pharma, cosmetics and biotechnology. 
  3. Being scalable. Immobilized biocatalysts are available on a range of carriers that are compatible with stirred tank and/or flow reactors, enabling customers to move to bench, pilot and commercial scale manufacturing. They come in both R&D and GMP grade options.  

Furthermore, each customer screen hit of FabricNano’s panels has both the technical and commercial potential to be engineered further for any process by coupling them with our surface mutation AI capability, Interaction EngineeringTM (IE) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Interaction Engineering™ Schematic. An AI approach to conserved activity and surface mutation selection coupled with Predictive Immobilization Plate technology to maximize immobilized enzyme performance to its maximum potential.

FabricNano will be launching a range of Immobilized Biocatalyst panels and stand-alone solutions to enable customers to unlock new chemical transformations sooner and more efficiently whilst de-risking entire R&D programmes that would otherwise be at risk. 

The first wave of Immobilized Biocatalyst Panels will feature:

  • Immobilized Ketone Reductases
  • Immobilized Ene Reductases
  • Immobilized Baeyer–Villiger Monooxygenases
  • Immobilized Lipases 

Sounds interesting? Reach out to VP R&D Vishal Sanchania for co-development opportunities via email: vishal@fabricnano.com.

References:

  1. Kumar, Vikas. Enzymes in Human and Animal Nutrition Principles and Perspectives. Elsevier. (2018).
  2. Richter, Michael. Novel materials through Nature’s catalysts. Materials Today. (2015).
  3. Al-Zuhair, S. Enzymes in biofuels production. Enzyme Res. (2011).
  4. Basketter, David. Enzymes in cleaning products: An overview of toxicological properties and risk assessment/management. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. (2012).
  5. Enzymes Market Size, Share, Competitive Landscape and Trend Analysis Report by Type, by Source, by Reaction Type, by Application : Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/enzymes-market 
  6. Enzymes Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Carbohydrase, Proteases, Polymerases & Nucleases), By Type (Industrial, Specialty), By Source (Plants, Animals), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2024 – 2030 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/enzymes-industry
  7. How Industrial Applications in Green Chemistry Are Changing Our World. (2015)
  8. F Gallou, H Gröger and B H Lipshutz, Green Chem., 2023, 25, 6092 (DOI: 10.1039/d3gc01931d)
  9. Alcántara AR et al. Biocatalysis as Key to Sustainable Industrial Chemistry. ChemSusChem. 2022 May 6;15(9):e202102709. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202102709.
  10. Hanefeld U et al. Biocatalysis making waves in organic chemistry. Chem Soc Rev. 2022 Jan 24;51(2):594-627. doi: 10.1039/d1cs00100k.
  11. Chemical industry hasn’t yet developed an appetite for biocatalysis, survey finds. By Hannah Fielding. Sept 2023. 

Authors

Vishal Sanchania

VP Research & Development