New enzymes from extremophilic environments for biotechnology

该项目是由欧洲联盟资助的Virus-X联盟的一部分，该联盟采用基于序列的生物勘探方法，结合生物信息学、功能分析和结构生物学，探索自然生态系统中噬菌体和其他微生物的元基因组和编码基因产品(www.Virus-X.eu)。在联盟的这一部分，学生将描述其他合作伙伴已经发现的新型酶的特征。在大肠杆菌中表达和纯化蛋白质后，学生将使用广泛的生化和生物物理方法来表征该酶，并探索其在分子生物学、生物技术和合成生物学中的应用。这项工作的一个关键方面是确定选定的目标蛋白质的X射线晶体结构。作为项目的一部分，学生还将对生物物理衍射和散射方法的发展做出贡献，范围从纳米结晶到电子衍射和生物小角X射线散射。最终目标是用具有真正创新价值的新功能来表征酶。

This project is part of the Virus-X consortium funded by the European Union that employs sequence-based bioprospecting methodologies combining bioinformatics, functional analysis and structural biology to explore metagenomes of bacteriophages and other microorganisms in natural ecosystems and the encoded gene products (www.virus-X.eu). In this part of the consortium the student will characterise novel enzymes that have been discovered by other partners. After protein expression in E. coli and purification the student will employ a wide range of biochemical and biophysical methods to characterize the enzyme and explore their applications in molecular biology, biotechnology and synthetic biology. One key aspect of the work entails the X-ray crystal structure determination of selected target proteins. As part of the project the student will also contribute to the development of biophysical diffraction and scattering methods ranging from nano-crystallisation to electron diffraction and biological small-angle X-ray scattering. The ultimate goal is to characterise enzymes with novel functionalities that possess true innovation value.