Coordinating enzyme discovery and enzyme evolution is important because the former activity provides new biomaterials that can be 'evolved' to generate specificities tailored to industrial processes. Industrial enzymes isolated from unusual bacteria have already generated a number of markets with multi-billion dollar potential. Thus the discovery of new microbes bearing novel enzymes has become increasingly important in synthetic chemistry. Ironically, far less than one percent of the microbial flora can be grown in pure culture. We propose to construct a device that supports the growth of a complex population of symbiotie microorganisms in a format that is also amenable to hyperspectral imaging, in situ. Using imaging, specific enzymatic activities can be observed so that genes for novel enzymes can be acquired. This enabling technology is important for industrial chemistry, and may ultimately lead to refined techniques for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.
Coordinating enzyme discovery and enzyme evolution is important because the former activity provides new biomaterials that can be 'evolved' to generate specificities tailored to industrial processes. Our approach proposes a novel source of biodiverse material which can be inoculated with common samples, e.g., soil or water. These activities are facilitated by KAIROS' expertise in imaging spectroscopy and current commercial endeavors in high throughput screening, directed evolution, and bacterial ID.
