The combination of computational and directed evolution methods has proven a winning strategy for protein engineering. We refer to this approach as computer-aided protein directed evolution (CAPDE) and the review summarizes the recent developments in this rapidly growing field. We…

Enzymes are an attractive alternative in the asymmetric syntheses of chiral building blocks. To meet the requirements of industrial biotechnology and to introduce new functionalities, the enzymes need to be optimized by protein engineering. This article specifically reviews rational approaches…

Metabolomics is a relatively new high-throughput technology that aims at measuring all endogenous metabolites within a biological sample in an unbiased fashion. The resulting metabolic profiles may be regarded as functional signatures of the physiological state, and have been shown…

The bacterial periplasm is of special interest whenever cell factories are designed and engineered. Recombinantely produced proteins are targeted to the periplasmic space of Gram negative bacteria to take advantage of the authentic N-termini, disulfide bridge formation and easy accessibility…

Polyketides are an important group of secondary metabolites, many of which have important industrial applications, including in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Polyketides are synthesized from one of three classes of enzymes differentiated by their biochemical features and product structure:…