HOTZYME · Systematic screening for novel hydrolases from hot environments

There is a strong need for new thermostable hydrolases with appropriate performance and/or novel functionalities that could provide huge savings in time, money and energy for industrial processes. The HotZyme project aims to identify such enzymes from hot terrestial environments, using metagenomic screening methods. New bioinfomatic tools will be developed to facilitate function prediction of genes from metagenomes that show low or no sequence homology to enzymes of known function. A range of high-throughput screening technologies will be employed to identify novel hydrolases. The consortium is composed of 13 partners from 10 European countries plus one partner from USA. The strong expertise in Microbiology, Moleculary Biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Geochemistry, Nanotechnology and Bioinformatics from our partners will be integrated in the project to ensure the fulfilment of the proposed tasks. Importantly, the five industrial partners, including three SMEs, will seek to commercialize the project results, thus ensuring a European wide impact, post project.