We are CC-TOP, an Innovative Training Network focused on exploiting the potential benefits of C-C bond forming enzymes (“carboligases”) in the industrial synthesis of high value chiral compounds. We combine a multidisciplinary range of techniques and training actions to cover everything from enzyme discovery and optimisation to the design of industrial processes that allow using carboligases in real-life applications.
Building complex compounds by connecting carbon-carbon bonds is at the core of industrial organic synthesis. However, current methods often have important drawbacks, such as the use of hazardous substances or the generation of toxic waste. Our innovation is oriented to apply improved carboligases as a complementary, eco-friendly catalyst class, so that they can unleash their potential to yield the same outputs as conventional methods, but in a more efficient, selective and sustainable way.
Our research goals
Our approach
We have structured the different individual research projects within CC-TOP to represent all stages of a biocatalyst development program.
Discovery
Engineering
Application
Microfluidics
Directed Evolution
Computational Modelling
Metagenomics
Rational Engineering
Asymmetric Synthesis
WP1 | Phosphoenolpyruvate lyases driven by a high-energy substrate
This Work Package aims at enabling technologies to take novel enzymes and complex reaction systems to an industrial scale.
WP2 | Thiamine diphosphate dependent enzymes with high potential for innovative reactivity
The projects involved in this package aim at unravelling the factors that govern substrate scope and stereoselectivity.
WP3 | Designer biocatalysts for promiscuous new-to-nature activities
This Work Package aims at engineering novel protein scaffolds unknown to nature.
