SphereZymes™

ZA Biotech has a licence to research, develop and commercialise an enzyme immobilisation technology (SphereZymesTM).Enzymes are widely applied in the field of chemical organic synthesis and primarily for chiral resolution of intermediates, and through immobilisation they can be stabilised to facilitate recovery and recycle.SphereZymes™ technology employs support-free enzyme immobilisation which is achieved using an emulsification process. Through the addition of protein cross-linkers to a water-in-oil emulsion of an aqueous enzyme solution, this technology allows for the formation of spherical catalytic macro-particles (SphereZymes™). The technique is comparatively inexpensive and can provide high specific and volumetric activities.

Advantages of this technology include:

• Formation of the particle structure can be controlled, i.e. particle size, surface area, enzyme orientation at the surface, incorporation of other materials into the interior or onto the particle surface. The individual spherical particles had a diameter of between 0.5 and 10 μm, but tend to form aggregates with an average particle volume distribution of 100 μm.
• Increased enzyme activity and stability compared to existing immobilisation technologies where cross-linking is random and indiscriminate. In some cases greater than 100% enzyme activity yields have been archived on specific substrates, presumably due to enzyme hyperactivation.•Increased volumetric productivity; typically low with existing immobilisation technologies due to bulky immobilisation supports.
• Physical properties can be manipulated, including particle size, hydrophobicity, and internal structure; no other technology allows for such a range of adaptations.
• Increased versatility; allows the orientation enzymes towards or away from the interface (phase boundary).
• Multiple enzymes can be incorporated in a single particle.
• Self immobilised enzymes thereby reducing production cost; current immobilisation matrices are expensive.
• SphereZymes™ technology is broadly applicable to variety of enzymes.
• Improved mechanical rigidity (robust) and compressibility when filtered, centrifuged and recycled through numerous cycles; direct cross-linking enzyme immobilisation methods tend to lower these physical parameters and so also the performance in some reactor systems.