Extremophiles and Their Enzymes: Alternatives for Industrial Biocatalysis

The need for more ecological and efficient alternatives in industrial processes has raised interest for the use of microorganisms and enzymes as biocatalysts. The discovery of extremophilic microorganisms and their novel enzymes has opened a new avenue for the finding of novel enzymes.

Currently, the repertoire of enzymes which are used in industrial processes is limited by properties such as substrate concentration, sheering forces, temperature, pH and organic solvents, all common features in industrial settings. In general, extremozymes have an overall inherent stability and they are able to overcome most of these conditions.

The unique features of each group of extremophiles can be exploited to provide enzymes with specific applications.

Her laboratory, Fundacion Biociencia has focused in the discovery and development of enzymes exclusively derived from extremophilic microorganisms. Some of these enzymes from thermophilic and psychrophilic microorganisms have been cloned and expressed as recombinant enzymes and are already present in the market. 

Biociencia has built one of the largest and more diverse collections of novel and unique microorganisms from different extreme environments. 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.

Here she will present some of the enzymes we have been discovered and developed as biocatalysts from extremophiles.