Department of Technical Biochemistry

Enzymes are promising catalysts for organic synthesis that enable efficient and sustainable manufacturing processes, thus presenting an attractive alternative to traditional methods. New enzymes are selected from the rapidly growing sequence space or by protein engineering, and are recombinantly produced in bacterial or fungal hosts.

We combine rational protein engineering and directed evolution with bioinformatics tools to discover enzymes which catalyze new reactions, and to improve their catalytic activity and selectivity, either as isolated enzymes or in cascades with other biocatalysts.

Our research strategy is highly interdisciplinary. Our research projects are embedded in national and international networks, and address both the basic understanding of enzyme function and the application in synthesis.