Applied biocatalysis

Stuckey, D. C., Caridis, K. A., Leak, D. J., Kinetics of Mycobacterium M156 for chiral biotransformations. Biotechnology 94, Indlnt. Symp. on Applied Biocatalysis, Brighton, pp.37-39, 1994. 

Cheetham, P.S.J. (1994) Case studies in applied biocatalysis, in Applied Biocatalysis (eds J.M.S. Carbral, D. Best, L. Borros and J. Tramper), Harwood Academic Publishers, Chur, Switzerland, pp. 68—70. 

Turner, N., Directed evolution of enzymes for applied biocatalysis Trends BiotechnoL, 2003,21, 474-478 Johannes, T.W. and Zhao, H., Directed evolution of enzymes and biosynthetic pathways. Curr. Opin. Microbiol., 2006, 9, 261-267. 

In this book, applied biocatalysis is defined as the application of a biocatalyst to achieve a desired conversion under controlled conditions in a bioreactor. This chapter focuses on the history of this field. 

Applied biocatalysis can be defined as the application of a biocatalyst to achieve a desired conversion under controlled conditiotts in a bioieactor. A biocatalyst can either be an enzyme, an enzyme complex, a cell organelle or a whole cell. The latter can be viable growing or non-growing or non-viable. Fttrihermoie, a biocatalyst can be free or immobihzed and this has far-reaching cortsequences, not only with respect to substrate supply and mass transfer in general, but sometimes also, in case of viable cells, with... 

In this first chapter the history of applied biocatalysis is described. At the end of the chapter, an outline of the contents of the main body of the book will be given. 

Apphed biocatalysis has its roots in ancient China and Japan in the manufacture of food and alcohohc drinks. Without knowing, man utilized microbial amylases and proteases, in particrrlar for the production of soy-derived foods. In Etrrope too, applied biocatalysis has a long history. Cheese making has always involved the use of enzymes. As far back as about 400 BC, Homer s Iliad mentions the use of kid stomach for making cheese. It was discovered that milk, which was stored in a bag made of a stomach of a recently slaughtered calf, lamb or kid was converted into a semi-sohd substance. Upon pressing of this substance a drier material was obtained (namely cheese) which... 

The first company based upon applied biocatalysis also dates back to the 19 century. In 1874 Christian Hansen started a company in Copenhagen, Denmark. His company— named Christian Hansen s Laboratory to this day—was the first in the industrial market with a standardized enzyme preparation, rennet, for cheese making. Rennet, a mixture of chymosin (also called rennin) and pepsin, was and still is obtained by salt extraction of the fonrth stomach of suckling calves. 

---