INTEGRATION OF BIOSYNTHESIS & ORGANIC SYNTHESIS (IBOS)
Fine chemicals contribute considerably to the quality of life (e.g. food and pharma). As the desired products tend to become more and more complex as a result of industrial and societal requirements (higher development speed, efficiency and sustainability of production processes), a drastic and radical change of strategy in synthetic chemistry is needed. Time has come to better use the learning opportunities offered by nature, as most of the biochemical processes that occur in living beings easily outperform the ‘best practices’ of conventional synthesis methods.
The IBOS Programme (Integration of Biosynthesis & Organic Synthesis) embodies this strategy change by integrating the diversity of today’s (bio)chemistry with the subtlety of modern molecular biology. Biotechnology integrated into chemical synthesis will enable a new future for synthesis, meeting the increasing demands of the strongly science-dependent health care, materials and other industries.
The budget for the programme amounts to a total of M€ 13.6, with contributions from Government, NWO, and the Dutch chemical and life sciences industry. Next to these direct contributions, industry and knowledge institutes contribute ‘in house’ and ‘in kind’ research efforts, so that the total funds invested in IBOS research will be around € 30 million.
The programme focuses along three research lines:
- Molecular Biology & Biosynthesis
- Bio-transformations
- Bio-inspired Organic Synthesis
For the long term, full integration will be the goal. For the next 5-10 years the objectives are:
- New catalytic methods for organic syntheses in which a number of atomic bonds are formed simultaneously
- Protective group chemistry, elaborate isolations and purifications will become obsolete
- Fermentation will reach a much wider scope including non-natural products ranging from simple bulk-molecules to complex medicines
- New hybrid syntheses integrating molecular biology and chemistry
Processes for simple and complex molecules with molecular weights up to 1000 should become available through IBOS, allowing straightforward development and sustainable commercialization in industry.
For information contact Mark Schmets, tel 070 3440 537, e-mail m.schmets@nwo.nl.