The 2022 Enzyme Engineering Award winner is Professor Uwe Bornscheuer. He is a full professor at the University of Greifswald (Greifswald, Germany) at the Institute of Biochemistry and is head of the Dept. of Biotechnology & Enzyme Catalysis. The award will be presented at the ECI Enzyme Engineering XXVI conference to be held from May 22-27, 2022 at the Marriott Hotel at Champions Circle in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.
Professor Uwe Bornscheuer received his diploma degree in chemistry in 1990 and his Ph.D. degree in Technical Chemistry in 1993 both from the University of Hannover. In 1994 he performed postdoctoral studies at the University of Nagoya (Nagoya, Japan), then moved to the University of Stuttgart, where he finished his habilitation in Technical Biochemistry in 1998. He has been a professor in Greifswald since 1999. Uwe Bornscheuer has published over 500 peer-reviewed research articles, more than 40 book chapters and has filed 50 patent applications. He has written two seminal teaching books (Hydrolases in Organic Synthesis with Romas Kazlauskas, Biocatalysts and Enzyme Technology with Volker Kasche and Klaus Buchholz) and coedited several other books such as the Protein Engineering Handbook (with Stefan Lutz).
Prof. Bornscheuer has supervised >150 B.Sc./M.Sc./diploma students and 70 Ph.D. students have graduated from his group (currently: 18 Ph.D. students). He has given more than 600 presentations at national and international conferences. Prof. Bornscheuer has received numerous awards such as the European Lipid Technology Award (2021), Chemistry Europe Fellow (2020), Greifswald Research Award (2018), Stephen S. Chang Award (2015), Normann Medal (2014), Chevreul Medal (2012) and the Biocat2008 Award (2008). He is currently member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Toulouse White Biotechnology center and of the company Carbios. Bornscheuer is a cofounder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the company Enzymicals AG in Greifswald. He also served as president of the German Society for Fat Science (DGF), he was Editor-in-Chief of a lipid science journal and is currently head of the Senate of the University of Greifswald. He is also member of the review board for biochemistry of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The major theme in the Bornscheuer group is identifying and optimizing enzymes through protein engineering for applications in organic synthesis (i.e., chiral intermediates for pharmaceuticals using hydrolases or transaminases), lipid modification (healthy fats/oils, oleochemistry), the enzymatic degradation of complex marine polysaccharides and more recently enzymatic recycling of plastics such as PET.
Professor Bornscheuer pioneered many methods of protein engineering, including a range of new high-throughput screening methods, computational tools to design libraries of protein variants and the application of these methods to alter the regio-, chemo- and stereoselectivity of enzymes for various applications. Many projects helped to establish novel environmentally friendly processes. He is recognized worldwide as a leader in enzyme engineering and biocatalysis, where he has developed important new concepts, technologies and biocatalysts.
Past Enzyme Engineering Awardees
1983–WHITE HAVEN, PA, USA — ICHIRO CHIBATA
1985–HELSINGOR, DENMARK — KLAUS MOSBACH
1987–SANTA BARBARA, CA, USA — EPHRIAM KATCHALSKI-KATZIR
1989–KASHIKOJIMA, JAPAN — SABURO FUKUI
1991–KONA, HAWAII, USA — ALEX KLIBANOV
1993–DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — MALCOLM LILLY
1995–SAN DIEGO, CA, USA — MARIA-REGINA KULA / CHRISTIAN WANDREY
1997–BEIJING, CHINA — HARVEY BLANCH
1999–KONA, HAWAII, USA — CHI HUEY WONG
2001–POTSDAM, GERMANY — HIDEAKI YAMADA
2003–SANTA FE, NM, USA — JON DORDICK / DOUG CLARK
2005—GYEONG-JU, KOREA — DEWEY RYU
2007—HARRISON HOT SPRINGS, BC, CANADA — FRANCES H. ARNOLD
2009 – GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS — SAKAYU SHIMIZU
2011 – VAIL, COLORADO, USA — DAVID ESTELL
2013 – TOYAMA, JAPAN — YASUHISA ASANO
2015 – ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, USA – DAN TAWFIK
2017 – TOULOUSE, FRANCE – PIERRE MONSAN
2019 – WHISTLE, CANADA – HUIMIN ZHAO