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An investigation of the potential of extremophiles as a source of new biocatalysts

Reference	ABC11254
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Michael Danson
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Julian B Chaudhuri, Dr David Hough
Institution	University of Bath
Department	Biology and Biochemistry
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	160,168
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	11/09/2000
End date	11/09/2003
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The biotechnological potential of enzymes and other bioproducts from extremophiles has remained largely unexplored, primarily due to the difficulties with isolating and cultivating extremophiles reproducibly and in sufficiently large numbers to make screening studies a viable proposition. The proposed study addresses this by adopting a radically different approach to the cultivation and screening of extremophiles, and thereby generating an enabling technology that is both generic in nature and flexible in operation. In the proposed study, a prototype bioreactor will be built that is based on reactor columns of inert and porous ceramic beads to allow microbial colonisation and cultivation. In addition, automated and rapid enzyme and bioproduct screening procedures will be developed to complement the bioreactor facility. Generic targets will be determined in collaboration with the LINK industrial partners, and will cover novel enzymes, organisms for bioremediation and gas recovery, and cytolytic, bacteriolytic and fungolytic activities. The technology will allow the simultaneous screening of 1000- 10,000 extremophiles, compared to the 10-100 extremophiles that would be sustainable using conventional approaches.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Engineering & Biological Systems (EBS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	LINK: Applied Biocatalysis (ABC) [1993-1999]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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