This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project deals with the development of a new type of biocatalysts by crystallization of enzymes on solid supports. Enzyme-catalyzed processes offer significant advantages over traditional chemical methods in organic syntheses, including superior efficiency, stereoselectivity and specificity. Yet, despite this enormous potential of enzymatic catalysis only a tiny portion of enzymes is used in the synthesis of fine chemicals or pharmaceuticals on an industrial scale. There are three major problems that preclude wider acceptance of enzymes as practical catalysts: enzymes are not stable enough, enzymes are fairly expensive, and in some cases - and this is especially important for the chiral resolutions- enzymes stereoselectivity is not high enough. Altus Biologics, Inc. believes that all these problems can be successfully addressed by using Cross-Linked Enzyme Crystals (CLECs). So far CLECs (microcrystals of 1-100 (m) have demonstrated excellent performance characteristics in the synthesis of optically pure compounds on a lab scale. Further scale-up of chemical processes (1-1000 kg) will require larger catalyst particles ( 1mm) which will be mechanically stable in both stir-tank and column reactors. To solve these problems researchers propose to design new catalysts by crystallization of enzymes onto solid supports with the following chemical crosslinking of the crystals. CLECs deposited onto solid surfaces (CLEC-SS) will offer significant advantages in the large-scale chemical processing. In this Phase I study, candida rugosa lipase (CRL) will be crystallized on the surface of glass beads and the properties of the catalyst will be thoroughly investigated.
