Use of Soft Materials for Enzyme Immobilization
Enzyme immobilization is a readily employed strategy to facilitate biocatalyst separation and reuse. This frequently takes place on (or in) soft materials such as alginate or agarose beads, or cross-linked enzyme aggregates.
These materials tend to have a low tolerance to pressure gradients, which creates challenges for a fixed bed reactor. Likewise, a stirred tank reactor will quickly damage soft materials due to their poor mechanical integrity.
The Rotating Bed Reactor (RBR) solves both the issue of mechanical damage and high pressure drops, allowing a wider application window for which novel immobilization methods and advanced carrier materials can be developed. Find exemplary applications using soft enzyme immobilization materials below.
- Convenient in-situ formation, loading, and handling of alginate beads is possible in a rotating bed reactor setup. It was found that this allowed simple collection, maturing, and washing of the alginate beads. Furthermore, it was possible to reduce the number of handling steps and to facilitate bead recycling. The beads showed no signs of physical wear after use in the RBR.
- In research performed at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, the catalytic activity of L-asparaginase was increased by close to 60% via combined enzyme immobilization in alginate beads and use in a rotating bed reactor. The RBR effectively minimized mass transfer limitations and proved perfectly scalable from 200 mL to 1 L.
- The production of hydroxytyrosol rich extract from Olea europaea leafs with enhanced biological activity was efficiently demonstrated by means of an RBR. The immobilized enzyme showed good stability over time in the RBR, while the same type of beads enzyme beads sustained mechanical damage in an STR. Thus, the RBR solved the problem of bead attrition, allowed the re-use of the immobilized biocatalyst, and enabled superior total turnover numbers.
- In another work, the production of recombinant choline oxidase and its application in betaine synthesis was demonstrated in an RBR. The authors of this work present a successful recombinant overexpression in a Rosetta expression system, isolatio and immobilization of the enzyme, and subsequent reaction optimization and synthesis of betaine from choline chloride.
- Also, the efficient synthesis of chiral lactones by encapsulated cells deployed in an RBR was reported. This study compared the SpinChem® RBR with traditional reaction setups and our proprietary solution matched or outperformed all other systems in this complex biotransformation, while simultaneously allowing 10 to 25-fold more time-efficient recycling of the heterogeneous biocatalyst.
Let SpinChem help you get started with better, more efficient biocatalysis. Learn more about different RBRs and its technology. Get in touch with us today!
