Elk Crew

Merging Peptide and Enzyme Catalysis in a Single Protein Domain Bearing Two Separated Active Sites A dual-functional catalyst that unites peptide catalysis and biocatalysis within a single protein scaffold at two distinct active sites offers a promising strategy for cascade catalysis. This hybrid ...

New paper by our college and @Enzyan co-founder @Matthias Pickl-Farnberger in collaboration with @Helma Wennemers: Bringing the worlds of peptide catalysis and enzyme catalysis together in a single biocatalyst with two active sites&functions. chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Almost half of the Elk Crew enjoyed #Biotrans2025 in Basel 🇨🇭—a week of inspiring talks and great science! Congrats to Lorenzo Cerutti-Serra for winning a Best Runner-Up Poster Prize 🏅.
What a week of ideas and inspiration— we can’t wait for Oviedo 2027! #biocatalysis #enzymescience

Development of Photo‐Biocatalytic Redox System for Asymmetric Synthesis of Optically Active Amines Using Blue Light and Transaminases. A Case Study Toward Mavacamten α-Chiral amines are versatile building blocks for the asymmetric synthesis of optically pure high-added-value chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and natural products. Herein, we rep...

🚨 New publication alert! 💡🧪

Excited to share our latest work on developing a photo-biocatalytic redox system for the asymmetric synthesis of optically active amines, just published in Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis! 🎉

📄 Read the full paper: doi.org/10.1002/adsc...

Transforming a Historical Chemical Synthetic Route for Vanillin Starting from Renewable Eugenol to a Cell‐Free Bi‐Enzymatic Cascade An artificial enzymatic cascade to access natural vanillin from eugenol/clove oil was developed by revisiting the very first vanillin synthetic process from 19th century. The biosynthetic route consi...

📄 Learn more about the biocatalytic cascade in our newly accepted paper:
👉 chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Elisa Lanfranchi, Federico Rossi & Nathalia Vargas Valverde just got back from #IBPRO2025 in Aarhus 🇩🇰!

Elisa won a Poster Prize 🏅 for a 2-step cascade to make natural #vanillin — cutting the usual 5–6 steps!
Great collab with ACIB, Univ. of Graz & BASF, led by W. Kroutil, backed by #COMET via FFG!

A big shoutout to our team for their fantastic contributions at the 5th NextGenBiocat Symposium in Milan!

🧬 Posters from Jonas, Isabella & Magdalena!
🏆 Magdalena took home the poster prize (!!)
👏 Christoph helped steer the science as part of the committee

#NextGenBiocat #ScienceLife #Biocatalysis

🧬 New paper!

We uncovered a new enzymatic activity, previously unknown to nature or chemistry: a 2ODD enzyme pulls off a C–C bond cleavage in a piperidine ring — like an oxidative retro-aza-Prins reaction: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

👨‍🔬 Congrats to Stefan & Wolfgang!

#enzymology #biocatalysis

Episode 58: The vanilla problem and how we solve it Die BioteXperten · Episode

Need something nice to listen to on your way into the weekend? Tune in to this episode of the #BioteXperten Podcast, featuring #elkcrew member Elisa Lanfranchi, talking about her research on a new biotechnological approach for the preparation of #vanillin.
open.spotify.com/episode/2I95...

🥳 Big congrats to Dr. Christoph Winkler @ckwinkler.bsky.social from our crew, who delivered his Habilitationskolloquium on “Contributions to Photobiocatalysis – From Reactor Technology to Synthetic Methods”!

We’re so proud to celebrate this milestone with him! 🌟

#photobiocatalysis

What is the main goal of our projects?

We discover and optimize enzymes to perform new-to-nature reactions under mild, green conditions 🌿—cutting steps, reducing waste, and pushing the frontiers of innovation 🚀. Curious? We’ll be sharing more soon!

#enzymetech #innovation

Why are we interested in biocatalysis?

Nature perfected catalysts long before humans imagined chemical synthesis. Biocatalysis offers selectivity 🎯, sustainability 🌱, and enables transformations traditional chemistry struggles to achieve.

#greenchemistry

👋 Hello world! Let us introduce ourselves!

We’re a research group exploring the power of enzymes to drive sustainable chemistry 🌍. Our 35-member team👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 works on hundreds of enzymes to create elegant, enzyme-driven solutions for real-world needs.
#biocatalysis #enzymes #sustainable_chemistry

Here is Xavier, the wonderful high throughput robotic platform that helps us detect and select the best mutants... and with many other things! Check out the video! #highthrouhgput #HTS #biocatalysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDM3hqYixaI

Biocatalytic sulfation of aromatic and aliphatic alcohols... Abstract Many relevant metabolites, as well as chemical c...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00253-024-13354-5

New tools for #sulfation under mild conditions: In our latest study, we characterized five new arylsulfate #sulfotransferases. The #enzymes showcase a broad substrate scope, including phenols, alcohols, and amines. #biocatalysis #elkcrew...

https://youtu.be/d8bdY-76rdc?si=7hn6QPgfNkgtvb35

💡Wondering what’s next after a Master’s in Chemistry, Biotechnology or Biology? Join Klara as she shares her journey as a PhD researcher in the #elkcrew at @UniGraz . Discover her #biocatalysis project, get advice on choosing a PhD, and meet our team....

New paper together with the group of Karl Gruber. The broad reaction scope of EREDs is simply fascinating! Congratulations Nakia and @willbreuk! #ereds #biocatalysis #oxime #elkcrew https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cctc.202400642

Nothing is so motivating and inspiring as an intense group meeting with great presentations and insightful discussions! Also its a good opportunity to take a new group picture. #elkcrew #biocatalysis

Congratulations @AlexanderSwo69, all co-authors and thanks to our partners at Bisy!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.4c02169?ref=pdf

Our latest paper showcases the power of unspecific peroxygenases (#UPOs) for asymmetric anti-Markovnikov Wacker-type oxidation & epoxidation of styrenes!
🔍 53 wild-type UPOs
🚀 selectivity: >99%
#Biocatalysis #GreenChemistry @ACSCatalysis ...

#elkcrew at the #biocat2024 in Hamburg. What a great meeting full of incredible science. Already looking forward to #biocat2026! #biocatalysis #enzymes

Solvent concentration at 50% protein unfolding may reform... Melting temperature is the parameter generally used as a ...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49774-0

New paper: Frieda established the co-solvent concentration at 50% protein unfolding as reliable indicator of enzyme stability in the presence of co-solvents. Check out the paper to find out more! Congratulations Frieda and everyone involved! #biocatalysis...

https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cssc.202400156

Proud to share our latest work on the biooxidation of HMF to FDCA using #UPOs! @AlexanderSwo69 outstanding work led to a highly efficient one-pot, three-step cascade, achieving up to 99% conversion at gram scale. #biocatalysis #greenchemistry...

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acscatal.4c01268

Excited about #biocatalytic ATP-independent amide formation in water? Kudos to Erna for her work on the #lipase SpL, achieving high space-time yields (up to 864 g/Ld), and demonstrating the involvement of a catalytic tetrad. @ACSCatalysis ...

Jörg Schrittwieser, who is one of the pillars of the #elk_crew just delivered his #habilitation lecture in #organicchemistry. Huge congratulations from the entire group! And all the best for your continuing #research and #teaching endeavours!