About

ModBioTerp is aimed at training 10 exceptional candidates in biochemistry, AI-guided enzyme modelling, laboratory-directed evolution, and synthetic biology. The focus of this project is on the natural product class of terpenoids, which is the largest and most chemically diverse class of natural products and hold immense potential for biotechnological applications.

ModBioTerp will explore the biochemical biodiversity of terpene synthases and develop tools to

• Perform product prediction for terpene synthases based on protein structures, modelling, and bioinformatics.
• Generate novel product profiles of terpene synthases in wet-labs based on the product prediction.
• Establish and optimize the understanding of the biochemistry of terpene synthases.
• Enable a sustainable production of novel terpenes through metabolite engineering.

Our approach will enable us to establish enzyme models, that predict and ab-initio tailor the structure and functionality of terpene synthases.  Implementation of the ModBioTerp knowledge base will enable sustainable, biotechnological production of new-to-nature chemicals and bioactives.