UNA4CAREER
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement Nยบ 847635.
Evoenzyme S.L.
EVOENZYME (www.EVOENZYME.com) is a new spin-off from the Institute of Catalysis (ICP, CSIC) which focuses its activities on the development and commercialization of ligninolytic enzymes engineered by directed evolution for different industrial sectors as well as in the design of directed evolution projects. EVOENZYME has been funded after over 15 years of research at the Miguel Alcalde group from CSIC, a laboratory with strong reputation in directed enzyme evolution of ligninases (http://www.miguelalcaldelab.eu), whose more relevant findings, protocols and methods have been transferred to the company. With an ensemble of top-notch technologies in directed evolution based on the Saccharomyces cerevisiae machinery, EVOENZYME harnesses a variety of methods for mutant library creation and screening aimed at designing customized biocatalysts. The company has a wide portfolio of evolved fungal -unspecific- peroxygenases (UPOs), high-redox potential laccases, versatile peroxidases and aryl-alcohol oxidases for the industrial uses. EVOENZYME team is formed by four researchers with multidisciplinary abilities plus one CEO with over 15 years of experience in business development. The company has been awarded with the first prize of Madrid HealthStart program from Madri+D Foundation, which promotes the launch of the most promising biotech companies in Spain (http://www.madrimasd.org/healthstart/).
The just founded company is being hosted at the Institute of Catalysis CSIC (see attached LOI) which allows the access to the sophisticate platforms of Alcalde’s lab (https://miguelalcaldelab.eu/laboratory-facilities/). These facilities permit to carry out the high-throughput techniques for the massive screening of mutated genes. These include one colony picker multistation (QPiX), one robotic 96-liquid handling platform for 24 -microplate-stations (EVO100), two robotized 96-liquid handlers, one robotic pipetting station, two 96-384 monochromator/spectrofluoremeter microplate readers, one monochromator-nanodrop microplate reader and humidity shakers. The laboratory is fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure for biochemical, protein and DNA characterization, including gradient thermocyclers, ÄKTA systems for protein purification, HPLCs (with diode-array, light-scattering, refraction index detector and evaporative light- scattering detectors), GC/MS, 5L-fermenter, tangential ultrafiltration systems for culture broth/protein concentration, refrigerated centrifuges, laboratory hoods and temperature controlled rooms.
