Pharmaceutical, Fine and Discovery Chemistry:
The use of enzymes for biocatalysis has a number of huge advantages over synthetic methods which rely solely on chemical reagents. Enzymes typically exhibit stereo- and regioselectivities which are very difficult to design into alternative abiotic methodologies. As a result lipases and esterases are routinely used to separate racemic mixtures into easily separable mixtures of acid of one chirality and ester of the other. Other transformations commonly used in medicinal chemistry can also be carried out stereoselectively using enzymes, for instance the hydration or hydrolysis of nitriles to primary amides or carboxylic acids (using nitrile hydratase, amidase or nitrilase enzymes) has been shown to be viable. The additional advantages of a biotransformation methodology in this case is the use of neutral conditions and near ambient temperatures, and the sheer chemoselectivity which for instance allows the conversion of nitrile to primary amide in the presence of a simple ester group. For more functionally dense compounds such as mono- or oligosaccharides, the exquisite regioselectivity of biocatalysis allows the transformation to occur without the need for a protecting group strategy which is a time consuming part of chemical methods. Additionally at the end of their usage, biocatalysts rarely need special waste handling which is necessary for methods which need extremes of pH or toxic metal-based reagents.
For these reasons, biocatalysts should be an important part of any chemist’s toolbox whether they work in the medicinal or the fine chemistry arena. Nzomics offers a selection of enzymes in the key classes and are keen to work with partners to develop new enzymes for novel biosynthetic methods.
Biofuels:
The conversion of plant products into fuels which can replace fossil fuels is an area where microbial biotechnologies have a lot to offer. In fact any research which uses microbial sourced enzymes is using Nature’s evolutionary processes to discover the chemical activity which is desired. Many bacteria can break down naturally occurring polymers such as cellulose and hemicellulose into small more easily metabolize mono- and oligosaccharides. These smaller molecular weight sugars are then able to be processed into, for instance, bioethanol by currently technologies. Nzomics uses Prof Gary Black’s acknowledged expertise to offer a range of polysaccharide-active enzymes which can degrade biopolymers and is currently working on an expanded range for the biofuels production market. We would be very interested in working with a strategic partner to develop an exclusive portfolio to significantly impact on this market sector.
Environmental Remediation and Waste Processing:
The use of microbially based filtering for effluent water supply is well developed. The use of substrates which offer nitrile-degrading capacity has been used to clean nitrile containing contaminants and pesticide residues. Nzomics offers a range of enzymes which we believe could be used for the clean up of waste water. Additionally enzymatic degradation offers great opportunities in the degradation of solid wastes such as polyester based plastics. Nzomics would be interested in working with partners on joint ventures to discover and define biocatalytic methods in these sectors.
Hyaluronic Acid in Beauty Products:
Nzomics has significant expertise in enzymes active on hyaluronan (aka, hyaluronic acid and hyaluronate). We have developed examples of hyaluronate lyase enzymes which can alter the polymer distribution of this valuable biopolymer (used in cosmetic preparations for its anti-wrinkle action), and we also produced a test kit, based on this enzyme class, which we can use to quantify hyaluronan using a simple UV absorbance protocol.