Directed evolution and molecular design

Directed evolution and molecular design synergistically offer powerful methods to discover and improve the new functionality of biological molecules.

Through our work in the MIB we are developing new and improved biocatalysts with enhanced activity and properties suitable for industrial applications, such and thermo-stability or tolerance to pH or salt concentrations.

Research applications

Using these methods, we can also evolve or design enzymes to recognise and convert non-natural substrates, this approach is hugely powerful for the discovery and production of new chemical entities in the pharmaceutical, industrial chemical and agrochemical sectors.

Beyond enzymes these methods also allow use to develop new biosensors for the detection of molecular of biotechnological and biomedical interest.

In the MIB we have developed automation platforms available for high throughput directed evolution and enzyme screening workflows. For example, we have a new fully integrated robotics platform for directed evolution and rapid engineering of biological systems. Robotics platforms for automated SELEX protocols are also available for generation of oligonucleotide libraries for regulatory tool development.