P. Somasundaran
Columbia Earth and Environmental Engineering, USA
Title: Enhancing enzyme activity via surfactant interactions for improved bio-fuel production
Biography
Biography: P. Somasundaran
Abstract
The central goal of this work is to improve the liberation of free sugars from cellulosic bio-feed stock through interactions with colloid surfaces. Through this project we propose and test one such mechanism of enhancement that is not commonly explored in the past literature: the manipulation of structural dynamics as one pathway through which colloids - such as non-ionic surfactants aggregates and inorganic particles - may influence protein function, i.e enzyme activity. This novel view of protein/environment interaction is potentially transformative and will heavily influence how protein based technologies are designed. This project is divided into three major objectives. 1) Select a system where enzyme activity / kinetics parameters are enhanced by surfactant interactions. 2) Determine link between active site flexibility and enhancement relative to surfactant concentration. 3) Determine surfactant / enzyme conditions that effectively enhance free sugar generation from cellulose. Fluorescence and UV spectroscopy will be used to enzyme kinetics. Anisotropic fluorescence decay, NMR, Raman will be used to measure both the dynamic and static changes to enzyme structure as well as measure surfactant/protein interactions. Initial results have clearly demonstrated a link between enzyme flexibility and function as a function of surfactant. Furthermore, initial tests strongly indicate that enzyme hyper activity is influenced by surfactant aggregates rather than free monomers.