Session: Advances in Extreme Biocatalysis

Biological production of complex molecules has many advantages over chemical synthesis methods including much higher reaction specificity, few or no side reactions, production of a single chiral form, etc. However, under many desirable industrial process conditions (high or low temperatures or pH, high salt concentration, high pressure, etc.), traditional biological methods quickly and irreversibly lose activity. This session would focus on progress being made in development of industrially relevant biological processing under extreme conditions. Papers would be sought that cover the entire range of development from discovery of novel enzymes and pathways in extreme organisms to industrial production using these organisms and enzymes. Examples would include characterization of relevant pathways and enzymes from extreme organisms, advances in methods to express active extreme enzymes in mesophilic hosts, overcoming issues related to scale up of bench scale processes, and industrial scale production. The potential audience would be individuals from academia, government labs, and industry involved in this type of work.