Space Industry and Business News  
SPACE MEDICINE
Ancient enzymes the catalysts for new discoveries
by Staff Writers
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 23, 2018

file illustration only

University of Queensland-led research recreating 450 million-year-old enzymes has resulted in a biochemical engineering 'hack' which could lead to new drugs, flavours, fragrances and biofuels.

Professor Elizabeth Gillam from UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said the study showed ancient enzymes could survive high temperatures and that this could help create chemicals cheaply and at scale.

"We looked at how we could use a biological agent, like enzymes, to accelerate chemical reactions, as an alternative to current commercial processes," Professor Gillam said.

"It's often very difficult to make precise changes to complex chemicals, but this is essential in many industries, the pharmaceutical industry being a prime example.

"These methods often attack multiple sites on a chemical, so one ends up with a mixture of by-products, while often requiring a lot of energy and creating harmful waste."

The team found enzymes that were more effective at higher temperatures and could be better, quicker and cheaper catalysts, using less energy and avoiding toxic chemicals.

"Naturally occurring enzymes do not survive for long enough to make this alternative competitive - so we came up with a hack," Professor Gillam said.

"These enzymes' pre-Cambrian-era-ancestors were able to survive great heat, when temperatures on Earth were around 60 degrees Celsius.

"We obtained all the gene sequences we could for a particular set of ancient enzymes, worked out their genetic evolutionary history and determined the most likely sequence of their common ancestor that would have existed in the earliest vertebrate animals.

"Then we recreated this gene, put it into a bacterium and tested the properties of the enzyme it encoded."

The team found the ancestral enzyme could deal with high temperatures and lasted about 100 times longer at ambient temperatures.

"This means more 'bang for your buck' in a commercial process, but also improves environmental sustainability, and widens our understanding and use of enzymes in synthetic biology.

"The breadth of commercial applications is only limited by the imagination.

"For example, this discovery could advance fields like gene therapy or help remediate polluted environments - there's a lot of work to do."

Research paper


Related Links
University of Queensland
Space Medicine Technology and Systems


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


SPACE MEDICINE
Biomaterials with 'Frankenstein proteins' help heal tissue
Durham NC (SPX) Oct 17, 2018
Biomedical engineers from Duke University and Washington University in St. Louis have demonstrated that, by injecting an artificial protein made from a solution of ordered and disordered segments, a solid scaffold forms in response to body heat, and in a few weeks seamlessly integrates into tissue. The ability to combine these segments into proteins with unique properties will allow researchers to precisely control the properties of new biomaterials for applications in tissue engineering and regen ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

SPACE MEDICINE
Virtual reality can boost empathy

Molecular memory can be used to increase the memory capacity of hard disks

Blue phosphorus mapped and measured for the first time

High entropy alloys hold the key to studying dislocation avalanches in metals

SPACE MEDICINE
ESA selects Satconsult to design new approach to scheduling secure satcom resources

Multi-domain command and control is coming

Airbus tests 4G 5G stratospheric balloons for defence comms

Lockheed Martin embraces agile software development to evolve signals intelligence capabilities

SPACE MEDICINE
SPACE MEDICINE
Army researchers' technique locates robots, soldiers in GPS-challenged areas

Boeing to provide technical work on JDAM GPS-guided bombs

New Study Tracks Hurricane Harvey Stormwater with GPS

Lockheed awarded $1.4B for first GPS IIIF satellites

SPACE MEDICINE
Dandelion seeds reveal newly discovered form of natural flight

Rolls-Royce contracted for propulsion technology development

US serviceman among two killed in Ukrainian fighter jet crash

U.A.E. to buy 17 new, refurbished Apache AH-64E helicopters

SPACE MEDICINE
Printed 3D supercapacitor electrode breaks records in lab tests

Inorganic metal halide perovskite-based photodetectors for optical communication applications

New memristor boosts accuracy and efficiency for neural networks on an atomic scale

New reservoir computer marks first-ever microelectromechanical neural network application

SPACE MEDICINE
DigitalGlobe expands NASA partnership with sole-source EO data contract

Earth's core is definitely solid, study finds

African smoke-cloud connection target of NASA airborne flights

Innovative tool allows continental-scale water, energy, and land system modeling

SPACE MEDICINE
Plastic piling up in Japan after China waste ban: survey

Delhi holds breath as burning farms herald pollution season

Study: Air pollution deaths in U.S. dropped by half between 1990, 2010

Swim team braves pollution to dive into Gaza waters









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.