STTR Phase I: Enzyme design for economical feed additives from sugar

这项小型企业技术转让（STTR）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为猪饲料市场开发低成本、高性能的饲料添加剂。目前补充饲料的一些添加剂具有有害的副作用和/或由被认为有毒的原料制成。由这些有毒原料制成的添加剂需要经过大量的净化才能达到安全阈值。该项目将开发新的酶和工艺，使从可再生原料合成化学和结构相同的添加剂成为可能。酶设计和工艺优化的结合将产生一个环境友好的过程，以生产添加剂，需要最少的净化和低生产成本。目标是开发适用于生产具有安全性和有效性记录的饲料添加剂的新型酶。该STTR一期项目旨在通过开发一种新的酶和工艺来解决可再生饲料添加剂的可用性问题。目前，许多饲料添加剂是使用有机化学合成生产的，这需要能源密集型的单元操作。需要对这些产品进行广泛的清理，再加上控制成本高，导致运营费用高。该项目将着重于通过提高酶的选择性和特异性来开发新的酶催化能力。在涉及高效单元操作的过程中使用新工程酶，将首次有可能生产出具有性能和安全使用历史的低成本饲料添加剂。通过使用强大的酶设计工具，通过基因合成来创建酶库，该项目将筛选具有所需功能的有前途的候选酶。第一期项目的交付成果将是对该概念的技术、经济和市场可行性的结论性论证。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project is to develop low-cost, high-performing feed additives for the swine feed market. Some of the current additives that supplement feed have detrimental side effects and/or made from raw materials that are considered toxic. Additives made from these toxic raw materials need to undergo substantial purification to meet the safety thresholds. This project will develop new enzymes and processes that enable the synthesis of chemically and structurally identical additives from renewable feedstocks. The combination of enzyme design and process optimization will result in an environmentally-friendly process to produce additives that require minimal purification and result in low production costs. The goal is to develop novel enzymes that are suited to produce feed additives that have a proven record of safety and efficacy.This STTR Phase I project is a proposal to address the availability of renewably-sourced feed additives by developing a new enzyme and a process. Currently, many feed additives are produced using organic chemical synthesis that require energy intensive unit operations. The required extensive clean-up of these products, combined with the high containment cost, translates into high operating expenses. This project will focus on developing new catalytic capabilities for enzymes by improving their selectivity and specificity. Using the newly engineered enzymes in a process that involves efficient unit operations, it will be possible for the first time to produce low-cost feed additives that have a proven history of performance and safe use. By employing powerful enzyme design tools to create enzyme libraries through gene synthesis, this project will screen for promising enzyme candidates that have desired capabilities. The deliverable of the Phase I project will be a conclusive demonstration of the technical, economic and market feasibility of the concept.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.