Recipient Organization
ZYMOCHEM INC
4 ANCHOR DR STE 231
EMERYVILLE,CA 94608
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
1-hexanol is a widely used intermediate chemical with applications in the perfume, food, chemicals ?and polymer industry. It can be dehydrated to make 1-hexene which is widely used a co-monomer for polyethylene applications. Current industrial production of 1-hexanol uses petroleum based feedstocks and involves several steps that are carried out at high temperatures and high pressures, making the synthesis of 1-hexanol energy intensive, environmentally unsound,?and unsustainable. This SBIR Phase?I project focuses on the development of a novel pathway for the sustainable, high-yielding, environmentally benign and cost-competitive production of 1-hexanol from biomass-derived sugars. The proposed pathway utilizes the strong flux of the central metabolism, involves no carbon loss in the form of CO2, and is highly selective for 1-hexanol production. Using ZymoChem's enzyme screening and engineering expertise, we will develop enzymes that catalyze the various steps involved in the proposed 1-hexanol biosynthesis pathway. For this project we will focus on demonstrating successful in vitro synthesis of 1-hexanol via the novel metabolic pathway.The novel pathway will result in sustainable and environmentally benign industrial production of bio-based 1-hexanol that can be significantly less expensive than its petroleum derived counterpart. The economic benefits gained by the chemical industry will be passed on to the end consumers. Production of 1-hexanol from biomass will undoubtedly benefit the society, as well as reduce dependence on petroleum for production of this widely used chemical.
Animal Health Component
80%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
80%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
This Phase I SBIR proposal is designed to validate our proposed pathway for the synthesis of 1-hexanol by means of reconstituting the biosynthetic pathway in vitro. Following the successful completion of the Phase I work plan (01/2016), we anticipate having a set of enzymes that together can catalyze the synthesis of 1-hexanol starting from pyruvate and propionyl-CoA.At the time when we submitted our proposal, we had confirmed 6 of the 9 enzymatic steps attributed to our novel pathway for the microbial production of 1-hexanol. Since then, we have made important progress toward further validating our biotechnology, which positively impacts the proposed tasks and objectives in our proposal. Specifically, we experimentally determined 1 of the 3 remaining uncharacterized enzymatic steps in our 1-hexanol pathway, that being Step 4. Taking this into consideration, we have revied our Phase I Technical Objective I to now identify only the remaining 2 enzymes as described below.Proposed Phase I Technical Objectives In vitro biochemical characterization and activity measurements of our identified enzyme candidates (produced in-house or purchased commercially) for Steps 6, and 7.In vitro reconstitution of 1-hexanol synthesis from pyruvate and propionyl-CoA using the enzymes identified in Objective 1 along with other enzymes (Table 2).
Project Methods
Our methods for this project include routine molecular biology tools for performing DNA-plasmid construction, protein expression and purfication, and enzyme activity analyses using spectrophotometric or Mass spectrometry. Successsfull demonstration using these methods is crucial for acheiving objectives 1 and 2, which are crucial in setting up partnership talks with chemical companies (as partners), VC's (for securing financing R&D activities) and academics.