Saturday
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Arrival and Check-in
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff / Welcome from the GRS Chair
3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Keynote Session: Fluorine Biocatalysis: Bringing Halogens into the Chemistry of Living Cells
Fluorine is a key element for the synthesis of molecules broadly used in medicine, agriculture and materials. Adding fluorine atoms onto organic structures is a unique strategy for tuning molecular properties—yet organofluorines are rarely found in Nature, and approaches to integrate fluorometabolites into the chemistry of living cells are scarce. In this talk, Prof. Pablo Nikel will also discuss how synthetic metabolism can be implemented to expand the chemical landscape of bacteria, providing alternative biosynthetic strategies for fluorinated building-blocks.
Discussion Leader: Sandy Schmidt (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Pablo Ivan Nikel (The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Denmark)
"Fluorine Biocatalysis: Bringing Halogens into the Chemistry of Living Cells"
4:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Discussion
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Novel Reactions, Techniques and the Catering of New Functionalities
Discussion Leader: Rebecca Schultz (University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States)
7:30 pm - 7:40 pm
Rebecca Crawshaw (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
"Engineering an Efficient and Enantioselective Enzyme for the Morita–Baylis–Hillman Reaction"
7:40 pm - 7:45 pm
Discussion
7:45 pm - 7:55 pm
Ravi Lal (Caltech, United States)
"Carbene Transferase Catalyzed One-Carbon Ring Expansions of Strained Nitrogen Heterocycles for the Synthesis of Highly Enantioenriched Azetidine Compounds"
7:55 pm - 8:00 pm
Discussion
8:00 pm - 8:10 pm
Maximilian Gantz (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
"Mapping the Fitness Landscape of an Imine Reductase Using Long-Read Deep Mutational Scanning"
8:10 pm - 8:15 pm
Discussion
8:15 pm - 8:25 pm
Cher Ling Tong (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, United States)
"Nature-Inspired Engineering of an Artificial Ligase Enzyme by Domain Fusion"
8:25 pm - 8:30 pm
Discussion
8:30 pm - 8:40 pm
Jon Bogart (Northwestern University, United States)
"Engineering Glycosyltransferases to Manufacture Non-Toxic Antifungals"
8:40 pm - 8:45 pm
Discussion
8:45 pm - 8:55 pm
Gina Partipilo (University of Texas at Austin, United States)
"Controlling Click Chemistry with Extracellular Electron Transfer"
8:55 pm - 9:00 pm
Discussion
9:00 pm - 9:10 pm
Bryce Nicholls (Conrell University , United States)
"Engineering a Non-Natural Photoenzyme for Improved Photon Efficiency"
9:10 pm - 9:15 pm
Discussion
9:15 pm - 9:25 pm
Martin Termathe (Institute of Biochemistry, University of Greifswald, Germany)
"LightZymes: Artificial Enzymes Catalyzing Abiological Reactions by Photosensitizer Amino Acids"
9:25 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Sunday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 11:00 am
The "Multi" in Advanced Biocatalysis
Discussion Leader: Christoph Winkler (University of Graz, Institute of Chemsitry, Austria)
9:00 am - 9:15 am
Theresa Dutschei (University of Greifswald, Germany)
"Enzymatic Pathway Elucidation of Marine Polysaccharide Degradation"
9:15 am - 9:20 am
Discussion
9:20 am - 9:35 am
Colton Lagerman (Georgia Institute of Technology, United States)
"Toward Engineering an Efficient and Thermostable a-Amino Ester Hydrolase (AEH): Minimizing Substrate Inhibition and Deactivation for Continuous Production of Cephalexin"
9:35 am - 9:40 am
Discussion
9:40 am - 9:55 am
Laura Grabowski (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
"Bio-Based Synthesis of Metaraminol Using Microbially Produced Precursors and Reactive In Situ Product Removal"
9:55 am - 10:00 am
Discussion
10:00 am - 10:15 am
Mariko Teshima (Technical University of Munich, Germany)
"Generating Superior Enzymes for Biofuel Production by Microfluidic-Based HTS"
10:15 am - 10:20 am
Discussion
10:20 am - 10:35 am
Katherine Taylor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States)
"A Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of the Mycobacterial Galactan"
10:35 am - 10:40 am
Discussion
10:40 am - 10:55 am
Christoph Diehl (Max-Planck-Institute for terrestrial microbiology, Germany)
"Machine Learning-Guided Optimization of the New-to-Nature CO2 -Fixation Cycle CETCH"
10:55 am - 11:00 am
Discussion
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Poster Session
Coffee will be served in the poster area from 11:00 am - 11:30 am
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Mentorship Component: Career Paths in Science
Discussion Leader: Gerrit Poelarends (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Panel Discussion
Career Paths in Science
Sandy Schmidt (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Pablo Ivan Nikel (The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Denmark)
Sabine Flitsch (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
Elia Calderini (Bayer AG, Germany)
Birgit Kosjek (Merck & Co., Inc., United States)
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Evaluation Period
Complete the GRS Evaluation Forms; Election of Future Chair(s)
3:00 pm
Seminar Concludes
