Evolving enzymes to harness the clean energy reserves of nature (2007-2009)

Glucose can be found in nature on a truly massive scale. It represents a vast reservoir of clean energy that is used within the cell by the glycolytic pathway. However, the glycolytic enzymes have evolved to suit the requirements of the host cell, a characteristic that often makes them unsuitable for industrial use. We will evolve glycolytic and associated enzymes to make them efficient industrial catalysts so that nature s energy stores can easily used commercially, e.g. in ethanol production. Further, we will use the energy generated by in vitro glycolysis to drive the synthesis of useful compounds. This is a novel coupling of metabolic pathways in the cell to exploit a natural clean energy reserve for an industrially useful purpose.