Gratulations for Lilla, our talented Msc. student, for the 6-month DAAD fellowships, which she will start in December, in the group of Prof. J. Pietruszka from the Forschungszentrum Jülich, continuing with her novel research topic on D-amino acid producing enzymes! We expect nice results and fruitfull collaboration!

Krisztina and Horia, after finishing their Master studies, entered as Ph.D student the Enzymology and Applied Biocatalysis Research Center and continues to work under the supervision of Csaba!

The project is entering into its end. The team is working hard on the financial and scientific reporting. But, of course the nice results obtained keep us pushing forward some experiments and finalizing manuscripts, thus we will continue to acknowledge the SNF-funding also in our upcoming papers!

Welcome back Zsofi to the group established by the PROMYS project. Zsofi continues as postdoc in Csaba's new project focusing on the design of D-PALs.

Welcome back Zsofi to the group established by the PROMYS project. Zsofi continues as postdoc in Csaba's new project focusing on the design of D-PALs.

Gratulations for Zsofi for the succesfull defence of her doctoral thesis entitled: "Protein engineering of phenylalanine ammonia-lyases for the synthesis of arylalanines of high synthetic importance". Her thesis is based on data obtained exclusively within the PROMYS project and can be accessed at: LINK

We congratulate our MSc students, Ilka and Krisztina, for their successful participation at "The National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference" (in hungarian: 35. Országos Tudományos Diákköri Konferencia - OTDK), organized May 17-19 at Budapest, Hungary.

• First prize winner in biochemistry section:
Ilka HORVÁTH: Enhancing the thermostability of phenylalanine ammonia lyase by iterative saturation mutagenesis
• Second prize winner in biochemistry section:
Krisztina BOROS: Incorporation of non-canonical amino acid into recombinant phenylalanine ammonia lyase

Our work related assay, describing a novel high-throughput PAL-activity, has been published in Scientific Reports. It is one of our long-lasting work, started by Nóra, continued by Diana and finalized by Mădălina, so we think it is worth to read!!! Now we have the tools for the directed evolution of PALs! Congratulations for all authors, especially Mădă, Diana, and Nóra who worked hard to solve all the tricky parts of the work! 10.1038/s41598-020-75474-y

The vacant positions were filled by: 1. Raluca, as 1st year-Ph.D student continues her work on directed evolution of PALs, 2. Hajni as postdoctoral researcher focuses on MIO-enzyme immobilisation, bringing her large expertise in this field. 3. Laura, as 2nd year Ph.D student joins Hajni on enzyme immobilization/biotransformation optimization efforts.

Gratulations for Csaba, for starting a novel 2-year running young-research team national grant, focusing on reversing the selectivity of PALs.

Gratulations to Alina and Mădălina, who won by competition individual postdoctoral research grants! Further gratulations to Mădălina and Diana who earned faculty positions as lecturer and assistant professor, respectively! Thank you for all and good luck in your carriers! We keep in touch within the Biocatalysis and Biotransformation Research Center and in the Chemistry Department!

Zsófi, one of our best performing Ph.D students left the project, leaving Cluj due to personal reasons. Thank you Zsófi for all and we wish you good luck in the thesis defence and in your future carrier!

Our work related to saturation mutagenesis at active site residue I460V of PcPAL has been published in Biomolecules. The work provides an optimized PCR procedure for efficient saturation mutagenesis and high-throughput procedure using cell lysates. We are getting closer to our aims of directed evolutions of MIO-enzymes!!! Gratulations for all authors, especially first author, Raluca, who nicely implemented several “hot” methods! 10.3390/biom10060838

We contributed to the work of exploring a novel phenylalanine ammonia-lyase from Pseudozyma antarctica. Gratulations for Andi and our collaborators from the Bioorganic Chemistry Group of Budapest and from the Biocatalysis and Biotransformation Research Center from Cluj!

Gratulation for Csaba, who received the Scientific Excellence Award 2019 of the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering!

Our work related to the use of engineered phenylalanine ammonia-lyases has been published in Scientific Reports. Congratulations for all authors, especially first authors, Diana and Zsófi!

Prof. Nils-Peder Willassen and Prof. Dr. Peik Haugen from the UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Chemistry visited our research center. We thank both of them for the inspiring lectures and helpful scientific discussions with our group.

Congratulations to our master-students, Krisztina B., Raluca T. and Horia D., who won by competition an internal university research fellowships related to their research work within the PROMYS project.

Andi left our team, focusing on another European research grant of the Biocatalysis and Biotransformation Research Center. Thanks for her contribution within the PROMYS grant!

Prof. Dr. Jörg Pietruszka, from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and head of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Research Centre Jülich visited our research center in October. We thank him for his inspring lecture and round-table discussions.

Our students attended the "XXVth International Conference of Chemistry", organized at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, between 24-26 October:

• BOROS Krisztina, MOISA Elena Mădălina, BENCZE László Csaba
  Site Specific Incorporation of Non-canonical Amino Acids into Phenylalanine Ammonia-lyase from Petroselinum Crispum
• BUZOGÁNY Zsuzsanna, NAGY Emma Zsófia Aletta, NAGY Levente Csaba, BENCZE László Csaba
  Extension of the Substrate Scope of Ferulic Acid Decarboxylase (ScFDC1) from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae
• CSEREPES Lilla, NAGY Emma Zsófia Aletta, TORK Souad Diana, PAIZS Csaba, BENCZE László Csaba
  The Synthesis of Optically Pure Phenylalanine Analogues by Mutant Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyases

Our work related to the active site mapping of PcPAL has been published in the prestigious journal ACS Catalysis (Impact factor: 12.221). Gratulations for all authors, especially first authors, Zsófi and Diana! Many thanks also for Alina and our collaborators from Oxford University for the nice X-ray structure!

Mădălina Elena MOISĂ and Diana TORK SOUAD attended the "14th International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotransformations (BioTrans 2019)", organized at University of Groningen, Netherlands, between 7-11 July:

• Moisă M. E., Amariei D., Tomoiagă R. B., Szarvas N., Toşa M. I., Paizs C., Bencze L. C.
  High-throughput fluorescence assay for phenylalanine ammonia lyase activity
• Tork S.-D., Nagy E. Z. A., Filip A., Lang P., Schofield C. J., Brem J., Paizs C., Bencze L. C.
  Active site mapping of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase from Petroselinum crispum

Congratulations to Alina for her PhD defense!
Alina FILIP defended her PhD thesis on June 21, 2019, which was focused on Wild-type and tailored phenylalanine ammonia-lyases for the synthesis of unnatural L- and D-arylalanines.

Diana Amariei attended the "9th International Conference of the Chemical Societies of the South-East European Countries", organized at Valahia University of Targoviste between 8 and 1 May in Targoviste, Romania. She presented the poster entitled:
"Expanding the substrate scope of phenylalanine ammonia lyases"

The "XXII. Transylvanian Students’ Scientific Conference (ETDK)" was organized between 23 and 26 May at Cluj-Napoca. The contributions from our group and winners of the top prize were:

First prize winner:
• BOROS Krisztina: Incorporation of non-canonical amino acid into recombinant phenylalanine ammonia lyase
Second prize winners:
• 2nd place: HORVÁTH Ilka: Enhancing the thermostability of phenylalanine ammonia lyase by iterative saturation mutagenesis
• 2nd place: KARDA Erika: Testing the activity and selectivity of PcPAL mutants in the transformation of nitro-substituted substrates

Four students from our group, Calina, Krisztina, Raluca, and Horia, attended "The XVI^th International Conference Students for Students", which took place between 3-7 April at Cluj-Napoca. Their contributions were:

• HOBLE Călina Alexandra, TORK-SOUAD Diana, BENCZE László-Csaba
  Engineered mutant ammonia lyase from Petroselinum crispum for the production of D-m-CF3-phenylalanine
• BOROS Krisztina, Dr. Mădălina Elena MOISA, Dr. BENCZE László Csaba
  Site-specific Immobilization of Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase from Petroselinum Crispum (PcPAL)
• Dr. László Csaba BENCZE, Drd. Zsófia Emma Aletta NAGY, Horia DUTA
  Investigating and improving the substrate range of ferulic acid decarboxylase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Raluca Bianca TOMOIAGĂ, HORVÁTH Ilka, Diana TORK-SOUAD, Dr. NAGY Levente Csaba, Dr. BENCZE László Csaba
  Enhancing the thermostability of phenylalanine ammonia lyases through iterative saturation mutagenesis

Congratulations to Krisztina for winning the best poster award.

On February 15, 2019, Mădălina Elena MOISĂ defended her dissertation entitled Tailored lipases for bioprocess development to earn her doctoral degree.
Congrats, Mădă!

A new paper was recently published in the Scientific Reports" journal, entitled Exploring the substrate scope of ferulic acid decarboxylase (FDC1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae - see publications link.

Our group attended the "24th International Conference on Chemistry", Zsofi has given a lecture entitled "Exploring the substrate scope of ferulic acid decarboxylase (FDC1) from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae", whereas both Ilka and Krisztina presented a poster in the student section. Their presentation were: "Enhancing the thermostability of phenylalanine ammonia lyases through protein engineering" - Ilka, "The site specific immobilization of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) from Petroselinum Crsipum" - Krisztina.

Diana Amariei attended at the 5th Edition of Young Researchers in Biosciences International Symposium with the presentation entitled "Iterative saturation mutagenesis application for enhanced phenylalanine ammonia lyases and high-throughput activity testing of resulting mutant libraries".

Two group members, Diana Amariei and Diana Bordea, attended the XVth edition of the "Students for Students" international conference.

Andi joined the project in order to help us out with the vacant post-doc position. Kati took over some responsabilities left from Nora.

New members joined the project. Mada occupied the place left by Boti, and Zsofi, becoming Ph.D student continued her work started during the RU-TE project, on the PROMYS.

Nora left the project for an industrial position. We thank her activity in the project and wish her success in his new job.

Prof. Robinson, the mentor of the project visited us. We thank him for the fruitful discussions and for his inspring lecture.

The Chemidoc Imager purchased from PROMYS and RU-TE grants arrived and currently is tested by Diana and Csaba.

Zsofi, one of our promising master students won the first place with his work on modified PALs for bulky substrates at the XX. ETDK (Transilvanian Scientific Student Conference).

With his Ph.D thesis at the final stages, Boti left the project for an industrial position. We thank his activity in the project and wish him success in his new job.

Two students working on the project, Diana Tork-Souad (master studies) and Diana Bordea (bachelor studies) won awards at the International Conference “Students for Students” Cluj-Napoca, 2017. Congratulations for their work!

The TECAN 10M Spark microplate reader purchased within the project has arrived and its functional. Alina and Csaba are testing it, hopefully speeds up enzyme kinetics and HTS-assay developments.

Alina received an assistant professorship from our faculty, starting from March 2017. Congratulations for her!

The members of the team have been concretized and are: Kati – responsible for computational tasks, Nora – responsible for molecular cloning and HTS-assay set-up, Alina – responsible for molecular cloning, protein expression and enzyme kinetics, Boti – substrate synthesis and chemoenzymatic procedures, Csaba –, protein design, HTS-assay development, supervision of activities.