The kick-off meeting of the European project ROBUSTOO “Robust industrial biocatalysts with peroxygenase, phenol-oxidase or furfuryl-oxidase activities from bacterial and fungal hosts” (HORIZON-CL6-2023-CIRCBIO-01-101135119), coordinated by CIB-CSIC, was held at the CIB Margarita Salas (Madrid, Spain) on 17-18 January 2024.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the 10 partners forming the project consortium: four biotech companiesMetGen (Finland), bisy (Austria), InnoSyn and Gecco (Netherlands), the consultancy Consorzio Italbiotec (Italy),the technology centre FCBA (Francia), and four Spanish reseach groups belonging to theAutonomous University of Bardelona, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center , and two CSIC institutes, CIB andIRNAS
ROBUSTOO aims to capitalize on the results of previous EU-funded projects that demonstrated the applicability of three oxidative enzymes, namely unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs), laccases and hydroxymethylfurfural oxidases (HMFOs), to provide novel and more environmentally-friendly production of bio-based chemicals and materials.
To exploit their full industrial potential, ROBUSTOO will carry out the large-scale production and development of new robust enzymes adapted to demanding industrial application conditions.
The new biotransformations to be demonstrated in the project represent breakthrough biotechnological solutions for: (i) the conversion of industrial lignins into bio-based material components using laccases, increasing the commercial value of existing lignin products; (ii) the production of intermediate and fine chemicals, difficult to achieve by chemical synthesis, through regio/stereoselective oxygenations of lipophilic substrates with UPOs; and (iii) the synthesis of plastic polymer building-blocks using HMFOs, as a sustainable alternative to chemical catalytic processes.
The work to be performed at IRNAS will focus on the selective oxyfunctionalizations of lipophilic compounds with UPOs, and will be leaded by Prof. Ana Gutiérrez.
Funded by European Union ID 101135119
