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BIOTEK2021-Bioteknologi for verdiskaping

FP: Bioøkfelles - Engineering the sensory quality of marine ingredients using "marine sensory enzymes"

Alternative title: aMASE

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Tailoring enzymes for the emerging biotechnology industry will be key to further development and value creation of biological resources in the bio-economy era. During the last decades, the marine sector has shown great progress in generating marine ingredients, such as peptides and oils, from industrial bioprocessing of fish biomass. The marine ingredients maintain a high nutritional quality, but suffer from sensory qualities that prevent a commercial realization of high-value and high-quality products for human consumption. The fish-like odor of marine ingredients is considered the main biological barrier to reach the full commercial utilization of bio-based residual raw materials from the aquaculture, ultimately promoting a sustainable and profitable bio-economy. In this project, enzymes are explored to overcome the abovementioned biological and economic barriers. From open source databases, metagenomes and positive clones from libraries, enzyme sequences have been analyzed by bioinformatics. More than 70 enzymes have been selected and studied in an established enzyme discovery workflow covering all aspects of the value chain from identification of genes, to recombinant production and validation by pilot trials in industrial settings. Promising candidate enzymes underwent broad biochemical and biophysical characterization using advanced, quantitative methodologies. Of these, three enzyme candidates were tested in marine ingredients and the chemical reaction was conceptually demonstrated. One of these enzymes is now being further developed to better suit the industrial conditions. We have used computational approaches to optimize the thermostability of the enzyme, and demonstrated that it works satisfactorily in tests under industrial conditions.

Prosjektet har bidratt til utvikling med ny kunnskap, metoder og tilnærminger som har stor og varig verdi for norsk bioteknologisk forskning og industri. Dette inkluderer ny kompetanse innen enzymutvikling og -optimalisering, produksjon og karakterisering av enzymer, og anvendelse av nye enzymer for bioprosessering av marint restråstoff. Arbeidet knyttet til utvikling av nye enzymer for å utforske og på sikt redusere uønsket lukt i prosessert marint restråstoff har allerede vist et betydelig potensial innen og relevans for norsk og internasjonal næringsliv innen bioteknologi. Dette underbygges blant annet av at resultatene videreføres i det nasjonale senter for forskningsbasert innovasjon innen industriell bioteknologi (SFI-IB) og det EU-finansierte OXIPRO prosjektet som skal etablere ny kunnskap, teknologi og innovasjon for bio-baserte løsninger på næringsrelevante problemstillinger. Prosjektet har ført til et tettere samarbeid mellom flere ledende FoU aktører innenfor verdikjeder og markedssektorer hvor Norge har et klart konkurransefortrinn. Det er identifisert både utfordringer og muligheter for å lykkes med å levere enzymer til bioprosessering generelt, og spesifikt innen prosessering innen marint restråstoff. Prosjektet har også levert en rekke allmennyttige formidlingstiltak mot publikum, inkludert installasjoner, utstillinger, debatter og samtaler, som har gitt et bredt nedslagsfelt i samfunnet og beriket prosjektdeltakerne med lærerike og interessante diskusjoner. En tverrfaglig tilnærming videreføres og utvides i nye prosjektinitiativ, slik som OXIPRO.

Tailoring enzymes for the emerging biotechnology industry will be key to further development and value creation of biological resources in the bio-economy era. The last decades, the marine sector has shown great progress in generating marine ingredients, such as peptides and oils, from industrial bioprocessing of fish biomass. The marine ingredients maintain a high nutritional quality, but suffer from sensory qualities that prevent a commercial realization of high-value and high-quality products for human consumption. The fish-like odour of marine ingredients is considered the main biological barrier to reach the full economic potential in the bio-based marine sector. In the proposed project, enzymes will be explored to overcome the abovementioned biological and economic barriers. The enzymes will feed into an established enzyme discovery workflow covering all aspects of the value chain from identification of genes, to recombinant production and validation by pilot trials in industrial settings. If successful, the enzymes will allow a full commercial utilization of bio-based residual raw materials from the aquaculture and increase value creation, ultimately promoting a sustainable and profitable bio-economy.

Publications from Cristin

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BIOTEK2021-Bioteknologi for verdiskaping