Molecular programming for Biomass Degrading enzYmes disCovery – MoBiDYC

The transition of our societies towards greater sustainability will increasingly rely on the enzymatic transformation of renewable biomass into high-value commodities. Yet, this step remains difficult on lignocellulose (LC) due to its high degree of recalcitrance, which involves specific physical processes which are often ignored when searching for efficient enzymes. Ultra-high-throughput activity screenings (uHTS) offer nowadays the possibility to explore immense enzyme diversity, a necessity to find adequate LC active enzymes especially when they are used in combination. Alas, uHTS are currently based on soluble fluorogenic substrate analogs limiting the relevance of their results.

In MoBiDYC we propose to implement a novel droplet microfluidic uHTS approach which associates a molecular programming method to the production of micron sized hydrogel beads to emulate complex substrates. We aim to achieve single enzyme sensitivity at 10^8/h throughput, making possible the discovery of must-find enzymes active on recalcitrant substrates.

Moreover, by relying on the unique versatility of molecular programming, we will develop an approach able to perform the selection of the best enzyme without having to sort droplets and analyse their content.