Profile of the advisor
Prof. dr. ir. Marco W. Fraaije is a professor in Molecular Enzymology at the University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD in biochemistry in 1998 at the Wageningen University (NL). After a 2-years postdoctoral stay as EMBO-fellow at the University of Pavia (IT), doing protein crystallography, he continued his career at the university of Groningen. His research group focusses on studying redox enzymes: oxidases, monooxygenases and peroxidases. He has advanced the field of flavin-dependent enzymes, one of the largest known redox enzyme families, by combining functional and structural studies. Many of the discovered or engineered enzymes are currently used as model systems or as industrial biocatalysts.
Expertise
Redox enzymes, cofactors, biocatalysis, enzyme engineering.
Profile of the research group
The Molecular Enzymology group comprises two staff members, nine PhD students, five postdocs, and a technician. Research topics in the group are enzyme discovery (often based on bioinformatics approaches), structure/mechanism-inspired enzyme engineering, enzyme kinetics & mechanisms, and biocatalysis. The work focuses on redox enzymes with strong emphasis on flavin-dependent enzymes, while also heme- and deazaflavin-dependent enzymes are studied. Except for a better understanding on how enzymes evolved and function, the generated knowledge is also used to develop new enzyme-based industrial processes. Many of the ongoing projects are a collaboration with other academic groups in Europe and/or biotechnology companies.
