Aim and description

To meet the growing demand for tailored enzymes for novel industrial applications, a rapid and efficient workflow for protein redesign and optimization is urgently needed, together with researchers trained in computational enzyme redesign. This is required to overcome the “number crunching”, time-consuming and expensive problems typically associated with protein engineering. For this challenge, transnational collaboration is essential, bringing together different fields of expertise. To this end, the COZYME network will develop innovative computational tools for enzyme engineering and constructing and evaluating enzyme variants. Through tight collaborations, young researchers will be trained to utilise novel computational tools. More specifically, the Action will focus on four main issues, namely:

• Improvement of generic enzyme properties such as stability and solubility;
• Optimization of catalytic properties, e.g., activity, specificity and stereoselectivity;
• Advancement of experimental approaches (e.g. collection of high-quality data) to generate and evaluate computational predictions;
• Train young researchers in developing and utilising computational tools.