France-based Proteus says that it has worked within the frame of its existing collaboration with Degussa, a global chemicals specialists, to discover what is described as a highly thermostable esterase biocatalyst derived from a Pyrococcus sp.
Esterases represent one of the most important classes of industrial biocatalysts due to their ability to catalyse reactions in organic media, making them exceptional useful for cosmetic applications where the controlled reaction of ingredients is of the utmost important in order to avoid timely and expensive errors.
It is claimed that this breakthrough will help to open up novel perspectives in applications involving poorly soluble substrates or products that are used for synthesis of specialty intermediates for cosmetics.
In order to discover novel thermostable esterases the scientific team screened various archaea and bacteria using substrates. One of these strains which showed activity at very high temperature was selected and the corresponding esterase gene was cloned and characterised. A complete production process of this thermophilic esterase was then developed, turning a gene discovery into a biocatalyst available for industry.
Proteus says that for cosmetic production processes the biocatalyst is robust and that further upscaling has allowed it to achieve an industrial scale suitable for a host of products.
Proteus also claims that the processing technique it has developed, together with the high esterase concentration and product recovery yield obtained, makes the Pyrococcus esterase economically competitive for the industrial production of fine chemicals.
Detailed results are being published by Degussa and Proteus scientists in Engineering in Life Sciences, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.