Chemicals
Manus Characterizes Biochemistry Of A Key Enzyme For Taxol Production
Press Release
12:00 p.m. EDT. March 16, 2016
Media Relations Contact
Frederik Bjoerndal, Vice President
Corporate Affairs and Marketing Communications
Manus scientists have published an article entitled “Orthogonal Assays Clarify the Oxidative Biochemistry of Taxol P450” in collaboration with Prof. Aditi Das from University of Illinois Urbana−Champaign.
The paper was published in ACS Chemical Biology (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschembio.5b00968).
In this paper, Manus scientists and collaborators describe the characterization of a key enzyme in Taxol biosynthesis which catalyzes the P450-mediated oxygenation of the intermediate taxadiene. Through both in vivo and in vitro (lipid nanodisc) analysis, they investigate the natural promiscuity of the P450 enzyme and establish additional control mechanisms for tuning product profile. “These results are significant in that they establish novel assays for characterizing the performance of cytochrome P450s, a class of enzymes which play a pivotal role in the synthesis of plant-based ingredients,” says Dr. Ajikumar Parayil, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Manus. “Expanding our understanding of cytochrome P450s enhances our ability to produce an array of diverse compounds requiring these complex chemistries.”
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