Title: Enzymes for green and sustainable industrial processes: Example of the development of enzymatic cascades involving Transketolase for the synthesis of rare valuable (3S)-ketoses

Abstract:

Nowadays, it is more essential than ever to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly industrial processes, that meet the 12 principles of Green Chemistry, stated in 1998 . “White biotechnology” enables to fulfil these criteria, through the use of biological catalysts, i.e. whole microorganisms or isolated enzymes, to synthesize high added value compounds, at industrial scale. For more than 30 years, major advances have been made in the fields of genetic, bio-informatic, protein engineering, robotic, process engineering and materials science, allowing humans to adopt this revolutionary and diverse discipline, for the production of useful chemicals, including medicinal drugs, polymers, biofuels, cosmetics, detergents, but also in the textile and paper industries.

Biography:

Marion Lorillière completed her PhD in 2017 at the Institute of Chemistry of Clermont-Ferrand in France, in Pr. L. Hecquet’s group, in the field of Biocatalysis. Her research focused on the enzymatic synthesis of chiral compounds by stereoselective carboligation catalyzed by a novel thermostable transketolase (TKgst), a robust thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) dependent enzyme, expressed from Geobacillus stearothermophilus. Her main objectives were to broaden TKgst substrate spectrum by Directed Evolution, while improving TKgst reaction process, through the development of one-pot enzymatic cascades. From 2018 to 2019, she completed postdoctoral research in the French pharmaceutical group Servier, in Croissy-sur-Seine, in France. She aimed at developing biocatalytic reactions catalyzed by isolated enzymes and whole cells, as well as the screening of fungal strains, for the discovery of new chemical entities. Since 2019, she is currently working in the international group PMC Isochem, in Vert-le-Petit, in France, in the field of protein engineering, fermentation and biocatalysis.