Enzymes are proteins found in every living organism, catalysing biochemical reactions and involved in multiple biological processes. Industrial biotechnology utilises enzymes in a large variety of applications such as in sectors including food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials. However, finding the right combination of enzymes for a desired process is often extremely challenging. Selenzyme, developed by researchers at the Manchester Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, is a freely available online tool that assists the scientist in the selection of the enzymes for his/her experiment. The user is guided through several decision steps in order to shortlist the best candidates, graphically presenting key information about the enzymes. Selenzyme is a key component of the automated pipeline at the SYNBIOCHEM where we are aiming to provide greener, more sustainable routes for microbial production of fine chemicals.
Carbonell, P., Wong, J., Swainston, N., Takano, E., Turner, N. J., Scrutton, N. S., Kell, D.B., Breitling, R. Faulon, J.L. (2018). Selenzyme: Enzyme selection tool for pathway design. Bioinformatics, bty065. http://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty065