Enzyme Engineering

& Industrial Fermentation

Enzymes are widely used as biocatalysts in the production or processing of a wide range of products including food, beverages, animal feeds, detergents, pharmaceuticals and textile products. Naturally occurring enzymes are often unstable or perform sub-optimally when moved from the biological to the industrial sphere.

Therefore, since the advent of protein engineering there have been efforts to improve these enzyme properties, and even to devise enzymes with novel specificities capable of producing types or quantities of metabolites not normally achievable in natural products. Such improvements or changes can often be challenging: enzyme activity depends on specific and highly complex structures, sometimes formed from multiple protein components, and requiring associated factors or metal ions to operate. Frequently, enhancing one desirable property comes at the cost of impairing another.

Mewburn Ellis has a long history of working with our clients in this fast-moving and competitive field. For example, we’ve been involved in protecting the ground-breaking innovations on the serine protease subtilisin (used for example in detergents and in food processing) since 1980s, and in multiple other enzymes in different fields such as brewing, biofuels and biopolymers. The Mewburn team has regularly and successfully defended patents covering our clients’ enzyme technologies at the EPO and assisted them in enforcing those patents before national courts. Engineered enzymes are typically produced in host species such as bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi and we also have many years’ experience in dealing with the fermentation technologies used for growing these microorganisms, and recovering the enzymes from them, whether at laboratory or industrial scale.

As more and more powerful computation tools are developed for determining and modelling protein structures, so protein engineers are increasingly able to analyse the structure-function characteristics for rationale design of novel enzymes, which can then be tested in large scale functional screening processes. Once again, our specialised team here is able to assist at our clients with obtaining protection for their intellectual property in the latest bioinformatics innovations in the enzyme space.

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Green IP Report

Patents are both a driver and a barometer of innovation

Our report examines the role of patents in making innovative ‘green’ technologies into a reality as well as how the patent landscape can be used to identify opportunities for partnering, collaboration and investment.

We share our enthusiasm and admiration for commercially-focused innovation across a diverse range of technologies, from repurposing carbon dioxide to make protein-rich foods, to the multi-faceted approach to a circular plastics economy. We also discuss the tantalising prospect of AI-mediated renewable energy supply, and the harnessing of battery tech from the EV boom to drive energy efficiency in consumer devices. This report reflects our passion for technology solutions that tackle our shared global challenge.

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Read our Blogs

Collecting Birthdays: Unveiling the Secrets of Extreme Human Longevity

Collecting Birthdays: Unveiling the Secrets of Extreme Human Longevity

by Emily Garnett

When 117-year-old, Maria Branyas Morera died in August last year, she was the world’s oldest living person. Born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907, Branyas lived her early years in the US before her ...

The Easter Bunny in a white coat — lab-grown chocolate

The Easter Bunny in a white coat — lab-grown chocolate

by Nick Sutcliffe

As Easter approaches, chocolate takes centre stage. Across the world, people look forward to cracking open their festive chocolate eggs, which are traditionally delivered by the Easter Bunny. ...

Seeing double: the rise of biparatopic antibodies

Seeing double: the rise of biparatopic antibodies

by Emily Garnett

It’s no secret that antibody therapies are gaining ever-increasing popularity in the pharmaceutical industry. Worth a mere 0.3 billion USD in 1997, the global antibody therapeutics market has already ...

Crafting IP Strategies for Innovative Biotechs

Crafting IP Strategies for Innovative Biotechs

by Adam Gregory

Following his conversation with John Joson Ng for Nucleate Singapore Pulse, we speak to Adam Gregory about crafting effective IP strategies for biotech ventures, avoiding common pitfalls, and ...

Enzyme engineering with AI – the latest chapter (in a long story…)

Enzyme engineering with AI – the latest chapter (in a long story…)

by Simon Kremer

For those of us who studied Biochemistry at college, the classic active site “catalytic triad” of serine peptidases was often our first introduction to the fascinating world of enzymes (and also, ...

HutanBio: algae is the fuel of the future

HutanBio: algae is the fuel of the future

by Simon Kremer

Algae converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into flammable hydrocarbons, offering a like-for-like replacement for fossil fuels.

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Forward Magazines Overlapping 8

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.