Biocatalysis

Biocatalysis is one of the approaches of green chemistry. By using the catalysts of the living world, the enzymes, it is possible to access reactivities that are unusual or non-existent in conventional chemistry under conditions compatible with environmental protection. A biocatalytic stage may then effectively replace a stage in an existing process but, even more advantageously, the particular reactivities of enzymes enable the design of new synthesis routes with sequences of biocatalytic stages enabling faster and more effective access to the products of interest.

Dir Anne Zaparucha

Bioremediation

Understanding and laboratory selection of microbial degradation processes for persistant anthropogenic pollutants is a prerequisite for further bioremediation applications. The team has long-standing expertise in biodiversity mining of contaminated natural environments through micro-organisms cultivation in strict anaerobic conditions, consortia maintenance and isolation of strains along with their molecular characterization. Degradation of the highly chlorinated recalcitrant pesticide chlordecone has been the flagshift project. The team’s interest is now shifting towards different emerging pollutant targets by combining microbial cultivation and genetic engineering approaches.

Dir Cécile Fischer

Synthetic Metabolism

The team constructs and/or selects microorganisms endowed with new metabolic capabilities for application objectives using the techniques of metabolic engineering and in vivo evolution:

Enhancement of the biocatalysts of interest for synthetic organic chemistry.
Acclimatization of non-natural compounds as essential metabolites and modification of the chemical repertory of the microorganisms for confined artificial biodiversity.
Implementation and enhancement of metabolic pathways for use of 1-carbon carbon resources (formate, CO2).

In general, the implementation of the projects exploits the principle of genetic selection. ​

Dir Madeleine Bouzon-Bloch