Inventor Profiles

Research area The study of enzymes and their functions, using synthetic biology techniques to discover new enzymes that can break down recalcitrant polysaccharides, like the cellulose in wood, for use as biofuel feedstock. Research goals are to define the structure and reactivity of carbohydrate, lipid and aromatic ring active enzymes; to probe the catalytic contributions of the active site protein residues; and to determine the consequences of protein-protein and protein-substrate interactions on the outcomes of enzymatic catalysis.

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What excites you about your work? 

“From years of work on projects in our Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics (part of the NIH Protein Structure Initiative) and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, we have a wealth of structural data from the genomes of various organisms but often lack information on what the encoded proteins do. Using our cell-free protein synthesis platforms, we can quickly functionally characterize enzymes and document their structure. We take this important basic research further by narrowing down the enzyme variants that have useful properties for advancing bioeconomy applications.”

What do you hope to achieve? 

“My projects focus on enzymes with different selectivities for reaction, and we study many interesting classes. We call one class of these the CMX enzymes, for the three different substrates they can act upon: cellulose, mannan and xylan. When generating bioenergy, enzyme cocktails are used to break down products like corn waste or switchgrass into simple sugars. By finding enzymes that can act in more than one way on heterogeneous biomass, the enzyme cocktails can become more efficient and less expensive. Students in my lab have had opportunities to collaborate with biotechnology companies and apply their work to helping solve real problems in industry.

Another class produces precursor to lignin, which provides strength and durability to wood. We have found some of these enzymes with uniquely high selectivity for reaction, and incorporating these enzymes into a plant provides a way to improve the processing quality of wood for bioenergy.”

Brian looks for enzymes that have evolved to harness them for new, industrial uses, like the deconstruction of biomass for use in biorenewable chemicals and fuels. The resulting discoveries will allow for sustainable alternatives through processes already partially optimized by nature.

– Jennifer Gottwald, WARF, Director of Licensing