E! 114107, HMO4all, KTH

Important results from the project

The main aim of the project was to make human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) available for a wide range of applications in nutrition, health and food products. The goal has been met by developing a unique in vitro production process for the main core structures of HMOs, without the need to use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the production of important food additives. This has been achieved through a combination of bioinformatics methods, biocatalysis and process development.

Expected long term effects

The project has overcome current bottlenecks in industrial applications of enzymes relevant to the project: This was achieved by developing biocatalysts with high stability and tailored specificity using new methods at the cutting edge of bioinformatics. New technology developed in the project has shown promising results in generating robust enzymes. Bio-based glycosylation platform: This has been achieved through a combination of bioinformatics methods, artificial intelligence, directed evolution, biocatalysis and biocatalytic process development.

Approach and implementation

The project represented a collaboration between 4 partners from 4 Eurostars countries. Each partner contributed with leading expertise in enzyme design, protein engineering, green chemistry and process development. The project was setup and executed in a way so that the whole value chain was covered: from computer-based enzyme design, experimental research in lab scale towards process development. This setup through close cooperation was successful and capitalizing on each partner’s strength, the project goal an efficient enzymatic platform for HMOs was achieved.