Research Associate Dr Hanan Messiha investigates enzyme mechanisms inside an anaerobic glovebox
Look around your world right now. “As well as transitioning our manufacturing economy to a more bio-based, green, renewable economy there are also new opportunities for making completely novel compounds which we currently don’t have access to using conventional chemistry. it’s about getting biology to do chemistry.”
MiB is a hub for EU and industry-funded programmes and has a strong track record in forging industry and stakeholder collaborations in the fine chemicals sectors, with partners including GlaxoSmithKline, Shell and Pfizer. Through these partnerships scientific discovery is becoming commercial reality.
MiB has so far specialised in the area of fine and specialty chemicals, which feed into pharmaceuticals and other types of manufacturing where small amounts are needed.
new discoveries in biotechnology also hold the key to developing treatments for some of society’s most debilitating conditions. impressive results have already been achieved at the University, such as the enzyme catalyst that has been redesigned to enable it to convert the natural product compactin into the cholesterol-lowering drug pravastatin.
“The new Synthetic Biology Centre in MiB is going to make a huge range of new biological molecules,” nigel commented, “some of which have commercial value. For example, we’re already working on the production of flavours and fragrances for the food industry and domestic product market.”
“of course, it’s not as easy as it all sounds and we face some major challenges,” nigel warned. “We are asking biology to make a lot of molecules which aren’t naturally found in biology and that’s a real challenge – how do you get a bacterium to make compound X in a way that it’s never done before. it might be four or five years before some of our products are commercially viable. others, with more complex molecules, may require longer. “The really exciting thing is that we may discover things we hadn’t set out to discover, molecules that have properties that we haven’t previously investigated before.” visit www.mib.manchester.ac.uk for details of the research undertaken by the Manchester institute of Biotechnology. See pages 24-25 for an overview of the five research beacons.
inside the Manchester institute of Biotechnology
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