Andreas Bommarius
Professor
Contact Information
Building: Petit IBB
Office:
3310
Phone: 404.385.1334
Fax: 404.894.2291
email
Mailing Address
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Links
Andreas Bommarius
Education
B.S., 1982, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Diploma, Chemistry, 1984, Technical University, Munich, Germany
Ph.D., 1989, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interests
Dr. Bommarius' area of expertise is in biomolecular engineering, especially biocatalysis, bioprocessing, and protein stability. His group is mainly interested in three areas:
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Development of Novel Biocatalysts for Regio- & Enantioselective Syntheses
Proteins are great catalysts but too few well-characterized biocatalysts exist. Our group utilizes data mining and structure-guided approaches to find biocatalysts with novel or enhanced specificity. We mainly focus on cofactor-dependent oxidoreductases and hydrolases for the synthesis of complex esters and beta-lactams, both situations with high regio- and enantioselectivity requirements. While development and improvement of biocatalysts is a primary focus, we also design creative processes to employ the newly developed or improved biocatalysts. -
Investigation and Enhancement of Protein Stability
Proteins are great catalysts but are very unstable materials. We investigate both the operating stability of biocatalysts as well as the integrity of therapeutic proteins over time, mostly in aqueous buffer solutions but also in homogeneous Organic-Aqueous Tunable Solvents (OATS). We have developed several models of capturing protein stability in a few parameters, allowing rapid assessment of stability needs and targeted attempts at improvement. -
Data-driven Protein Engineering
Proteins are still not sufficiently well understood to allow rational design of their properties, while combinatorial approaches require huge and often unwieldy libraries to attempt to traverse sequence space. Both do not feature a very high fraction of successful variants, i.e. of more active, more selective, or more stable proteins. Our group focuses on data-driven protein engineering, increasingly used as an alternative to rational design and combinatorial engineering because it uses available knowledge to limit library size, while still allowing for the identification of unpredictable substitutions that lead to large effects.
Background
Dr. Bommarius joined the Georgia Tech faculty in the Fall of 2000 after an industrial career of more than 10 years with the Degussa company in specialty chemicals where he headed the Biocatalysis laboratory and pilot plant. During nine of those years, he also lectured at the graduate level in Biochemical Engineering and Biocatalysis. His two dozen patents and as many applications cover chemoenzymatic processes, amino acid chemistry, membrane reactors, and novel biocatalysts as well as chemocatalysts. At Georgia Tech, he is a faculty member of both the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Rationale
Biotechnology and biocatalysis have been essential for the enormous progress in the synthesis and processing of complex molecules towards novel drugs, crop protection agents, and nutraceuticals. Currently, understanding of design rules for Nature's catalysts makes great progress. Biocatalysts, however, often are stable only over limited ranges of temperature, pH value, and solvent. Furthermore, many fewer catalysts exist than interesting targets and the development of new biocatalysts still too long. Thus, two of the most important challenges in biological catalysis are the necessity for improving stability of protein-based catalysts as well as the creation and optimization of new catalysts and reaction media.