Project Grant 2138880

This two-year, $200,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems will fund research at the Long Beach Research Foundation to develop multi-activity proteins for improved carbohydrate deconstruction. Specifically, the Foundation will produce and test 85 engineered multi-activity proteins containing two catalytic domains each. These proteins aim to increase biomass conversion for alternative fuels and chemicals production through proximity effects and synergistic interactions between combined domains. The researchers will characterize the purified proteins to understand interaction mechanisms and identify new catalysts. They will also provide research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and public lectures on enzymology and protein engineering. If successful, this work could yield improved understanding and custom engineering of multi-activity proteins for applications like more efficient biomass processing. The official federal program supporting this award is the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041).