Taking advantage of extremozymes for the improvement of industrial biocatalysis

Swissaustral is a consortium of research-driven biotech companies focused in the discovery and development of industrial enzymes exclusively derived from extremophilic microorganisms. With more than 15 years of experience working with extremophiles, Swissaustral has built one of the largest and more diverse collections of novel and unique microorganisms from different extreme environments. Furthermore, this extreme bio-bank is permanently growing in order to provide the industry with the most complete source of extremozymes as novel biocatalytic solutions for non-standard technological challenges and more environment-friendly and cost-efficient processes.

Due to native extremozymes usually have very low yields, and that the extreme conditions necessary to grow extremophiles can damage or at least diminish the lifespan of expensive equipment, Swissaustral is constantly developing recombinant versions of the most promising enzymes discovered in microorganisms from its proprietary collection. So far, functional recombinant extremozymes from different sources of phylogenetically distant microorganisms have been successfully expressed with an efficient production level, while keeping or even improving all the relevant characteristics found in their native versions.

To date, Swissaustral counts with several highly active and thermostable heterologous extremozymes in different stages of development. For instance, a catalase from a psychrotolerant bacterium and a glutamate dehydrogenase from a thermophilic bacterium, are both currently available as products and their distinctive features will be discussed during this presentation. Furthermore, other enzymes such as laccases from thermophilic bacteria, a nitrilase from a hyperthermophilic archaea as well as a superoxide dismutase from a thermophile, which are currently under development, will also be presented.