Through biological and process engineering, EU researchers have created new enzymes that perform glycosylation reactions more cheaply and more sustainably than the current chemical process.
Glycosylation, the addition of a sugar molecule to an acceptor compound, is an important industrial process to create new pharmaceutical, cosmetic or flavourant compounds. However, the reaction needs to be catalysed by often expensive and inefficient chemical catalysts.
Further details: New enzymes for cheaper glycosylation