UB Engineering eNews

Chemical and Biological

Koffas: Training Microorganisms

A UB research team led by Mattheos A. G. Koffas, assistant professor (CBE), is collaborating with First Wave Technologies Inc, a tech development company based in UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. First Wave was awarded a competitive NSF Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to research efficiency in producing innovative pharmaceutical compounds with microbial biosynthesis, which may radically transform their commercial production methods.

The researchers are attempting to “train” microbial systems to produce high yields of chemicals. In Applied & Environmental Microbiology, they reported successfully producing a higher yield of flavonoids than other efforts had produced. Flavonoids are used to fight aging, cancer, and obesity. Microbial
biosynthesis strategies may be adapted for other commercially significant classes of compounds like vitamins and anti-parasitic drugs.
Beyond efficiency, microbial biosynthesis offers several benefits. It can reduce or eliminate the need for undesirable elements like toxic heavy metal catalysts and dangerous solvents in the production of specialty chemicals. Also, the natural enzymes the UB researchers are using can facilitate chemical reactions that are difficult to accomplish with conventional chemistry.