About the Centre
The Exeter Biocatalysis Centre was officially opened on the 25th November 2003 by Professor Sir Christopher Evans, OBE. Sir Christopher is one of Europes leading biotechnology venture capitalists and has been involved with the University for many years since setting up one of his first companies, Chiroscience. Within the last 15 years he has established 20 technology companies, eight of which have been floated on the London Stock Exchange. The opening event was well attended with over 60 participants that included visitors from the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC and EPSRC together with representatives from both local and international companies. These were in addition to staff from the University of Exeter, Plymouth and many other UK Universities and research Institutes. We were also pleased to welcome visitors from the city and the South West regional development agency.
The Henry Wellcome Building for Biocatalysis creates a first class knowledge resource of academic, postdoctoral and PhD researchers. This will lead further advances in our understanding of biological catalysis and:
- The synthesis of novel and safer therapeutics by using enzymes in chemical synthetic procedures.
- An understanding of the effect of amino acid changes in human proteins and their involvement in disease such as oxidative stress, Alzheimer’s Disease and various inherited diseases such as type II diabetes.
- The discovery and design of new systems for applications as diverse as high throughput biocatalytic synthesis and screening in micro-reactors, environmental bioremediation and the production of biosensors.
- The study of proteins found in hostile environments at the extremes of temperature, pressure, and pH and their commercial applications in biotechnology.
Professor Jennifer Littlechild heads the work being undertaken at the centre, encompassing research into the aspects of biocatalysis such as:
- Relationships between protein structure and function
- Protein engineering
- Molecular graphics and protein crystallography
Biocatalysis draws on a broad range of expertise to study and develop novel biological catalysts. The facility brings together researchers from the University of Exeter new School of Biosciences, Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and the Peninsula Medical School.
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