This £1.13 million project entitled “Novel biocatalysts for sustainable manufacture of pharmaceuticals” will harness bacterial enzymes to replace hazardous chemical manufacture.

ErebaGen is a biotechnology company that harnesses the reservoir of biocatalysts developed over millions of years of evolution by Nature. The technology ErebaGen is developing builds directly BBSRC-funded research on pioneering discovery of direct aromatic amino acid nitration by a new class of cytochrome P450 enzymes in thaxtomin phytotoxin biosynthesis (Nat. Chem. Biol. 2012, 8, 814; 233) and follow up work through a collaborative PhD studentship with GSK and BBSRC (2014-2018), resulting in two further publications (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 15764 and ChemBioChem, 2021, 22, 2262).

This is the latest in a string of successes in the establishment and growth of the company, which have included the award of a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship to company co-founder Dr Doug Roberts in 2021, successful participation in Midlands ICURe leading to £210k in follow on funding from Innovate UK (2021-2023), pre-seed investment of £250k from StartCodon and £70k of Angel investment. The company has also participated in successful partnerships with a University of Oxford spinout company and a US antibiotic development company, with the latter exploiting ground-breaking synthetic biology tools developed by the Challis/Alkhalaf lab (Nucleic Acids Res. 2023, 51, 1488).

Prof Greg Challis commented,

"This is a shining example of how curiosity-driven research underpins development of disruptive new technologies for optimising production efficiency, minimising waste and reducing emissions in the manufacture of high value chemicals, aligning with global sustainability goals."

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ErebaGen Awarded UKRI Grant to Develop Novel Biocatalysts for Sustainable Pharmaceutical Manufacturing – ErebaGen